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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29745192">Searching for the Water, Hoping for the Rain</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/asparagus_writes/pseuds/asparagus_writes'>asparagus_writes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anakin Skywalker Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, BAMF Padmé Amidala, F/M, Luke and Leia are born early, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, Odyssey AU (kind of), Padmé Amidala Lives, Post-Order 66 (Star Wars), RotS AU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 21:54:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>30,003</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29745192</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/asparagus_writes/pseuds/asparagus_writes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke and Leia Skywalker are born just in time to save their father from Palpatine's clutches. As the newly-minted Emperor Palpatine moves to reclaim his prize, or, failing that, destroy his most dangerous enemy, the Skywalker family must find their way back to each other. </p><p>In which, though it may take a long time, people linked by destiny will always find each other.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>131</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>242</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Diverging Paths and New Life</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I thought I would try my hand at the ever-popular ROTS AU/rebellion era rewrite. This is very much a self-indulgent project, and will be much more plot-y than my usual content. We'll see how it goes :)</p><p>(Title from Up&amp;Up by Coldplay)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anakin Skywalker was about to turn from the window of the Council Chambers—about to take matters into his own hands and intervene in the Jedi Council’s “arrest” of Palpatine—when his commlink chimed. Expecting it to be Master Windu, Anakin hastily wiped the tears off his cheeks and tried to compose himself before he answered the call. It was Padmé’s face that greeted him instead.</p>
<p>“Anakin,” she began, her voice taut, “I think I’m in labor.”</p>
<p>It was about the last thing he had expected to hear. Dread roiled through him. He—<em>they</em>—were supposed to have more time to find a way to stop his visions from coming true.</p>
<p>“<em>No,</em> It’s too early—" he protested uselessly.</p>
<p>“I’ve been having contractions all day, and I thought they were false ones, but my water broke—”</p>
<p>She drew in a sharp breath and broke off, apparently suffering through one of the said contractions.</p>
<p>“Padmé—” he began, wanting to comfort her but not knowing how. Any platitudes would be lies. Panic was twisting in his gut, trapping all the words in his throat.</p>
<p>“Ani, you should be here,” she gasped after a moment, her face tight with pain. She was right. He didn’t think he would be able to bear it if she died, but he <em>knew</em> he wouldn’t be able to bear not being at her side when it happened. And, there was still a small hope in him that the Force might tell him what he needed to do when the moment came.</p>
<p>
  <em>Please, please, please help me keep her safe—both of them safe.</em>
</p>
<p>The Force stabbed through his heart in agreement, blinding in its urgency.<em> Go, </em>he thought it was saying.</p>
<p>“Hang on, Angel, I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he promised, already heading for the doors.</p>
<p>It was perhaps an uncommon sight to see a Jedi knight sprinting through the halls of the serene Jedi temple, but perhaps less uncommon to see Anakin Skywalker doing it. They really should have been more concerned; he was a Council member now, and one of the most involved Generals in the war. But those who he passed in the halls just quickly moved out of his way, shook their heads after him exasperatedly, and went back to their business.</p>
<p>No, Anakin was not a model Jedi, but for once he didn’t care who thought so. His wife needed him.</p>
<hr/>
<p>“We should go to the MedCenter,” Anakin told Padmé, rubbing her back as she braced herself against the back of the couch.</p>
<p>“No,” Padmé whimpered, as her contraction receded. A very pregnant Galactic Senator showing up at the labor and delivery wing of any of Coruscant’s hospitals with Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker in tow would not go unnoticed. The hard-won secrecy they had maintained these past years of marriage would be thrown out the window. Besides, the women in her family had never had a problem with childbirth, and she wasn’t about to be the first.</p>
<p>Not to mention that the contractions were coming very close together now. She’d had three more in the ten minutes since she’d contacted Anakin. Padmé wasn’t feeling very confident she’d even make it to the MedCenter before the baby came. But she knew there was no way to tell Anakin that without making him panic—well, more than he was already—so she didn’t.</p>
<p>As the pain passed, Padmé straightened and turned to face her husband.</p>
<p>“As long as EmDee says everything’s fine, I’m staying right here. Going to the MedCenter would cause more problems than it would solve,”</p>
<p>“But—” Anakin started, and she knew where this was going.</p>
<p>“I know that you’re worried, but I don’t feel anything wrong,”</p>
<p>Anakin raised his eyebrows, looking very skeptical at her last statement due to the very obvious pain she had just been in. Padmé waved her hand. She wasn’t exactly sure why, but she felt the need to be very stubborn on this issue. She hoped it was her motherly instincts kicking in.</p>
<p>“Painful contractions are natural. Besides, EmDee has been checking up on me regularly and never said anything was wrong.”</p>
<p>Anakin opened his mouth to keep arguing the point, but Padmé plowed on. Clearly, her husband was ruled by fear when it came to her pregnancy, so, gifted debater that she was, Padmé was going to use it to her advantage.</p>
<p>Poor Anakin, she doubted he would ever win an argument against her.</p>
<p>“Who knows what kind of diseases the baby or I could pick up from a Coruscant hospital? And you and I both have plenty of enemies who might use this as an opportunity, Anakin. The fewer people who know about this, the <em>less </em>danger I’m in.”</p>
<p>“But if something goes wrong—”</p>
<p>“<em>Nothing</em> will go wrong Anakin, this is natural,” Padmé felt another contraction building, “and millions of women go through this every day just fine without any—” she gasped and clutched Anakin’s arms very tightly, “—<em>help.</em>”</p>
<p>This was definitely the worst one yet. Her legs went weak underneath her, and she sunk to the floor, leaning heavily on Anakin. The intensity of his return grip on her arms almost matched her own. Anakin’s commlink beeped insistently, but he ignored it. For some reason Padmé’s awareness zeroed in on the sound. That, and the <em>pain</em>.</p>
<p>“Hey, breathe, breathe,” Anakin told her, his voice shaking. She dragged her eyes up to meet his gaze and nod, not trusting herself to speak without crying out.</p>
<p>After a minute, the pain subsided, and Padmé collapsed against the back of the couch. Anakin released her, standing up and saying,</p>
<p>“I’m going to get EmDee.”</p>
<p>Padmé watched the empty doorway he had disappeared through, smoothing her hand worriedly over her stomach. She didn’t want to let Anakin see any of her doubt, since she knew he had plenty of his own, but shouldn’t she be more excited? Of course, she <em>knew</em> she would be overjoyed to meet their child, knew that the baby would never want for love from its parents, but she couldn’t <em>feel</em> it. Padmé couldn’t shake her heavy nerves. Maybe it was natural, but it, and the guilt she felt for even being nervous, certainly wasn’t helping her endure labor. At least Anakin was with her, and not on a distant planet commanding a siege—they had gotten lucky with that.</p>
<p>When Anakin returned from the other room with the medical droid, he helped her to the couch and the droid did a quick examination. Anakin watched the droid’s movements like a hawk. His commlink chimed again, but he didn’t make any move to check it.</p>
<p>“You’re almost fully dilated, Senator. You should feel the urge to push in the next few contractions,” EmDee informed her primly. Padmé’s eyes widened, her heart thudding in anticipation even though she had privately predicted this, and she meet Anakin’s surprised gaze. The only thing she could think to say, never one to forego winning an argument when the opportunity presented itself, was,</p>
<p>“See, if we had decided to go to the MedCenter, I’d have ended up giving birth in the speeder.”</p>
<p>Her husband responded with a nervous laugh and said,</p>
<p>“You win, we definitely can’t go now.”</p>
<p>Padmé barely noted his poor attempt at levity as another contraction gripped her. And she was only dimly aware of Anakin’s commlink going off again, him pulling it out, hesitating, and then tossing it out of sight. When the pain lessened, Padmé pushed herself up from her reclining position on the couch, breathlessly saying,</p>
<p>“If I give birth on this couch, we’ll never get it clean. Help me into the bedroom, Ani?”</p>
<p>“Sure,” he responded, offering both his hands to haul her upright. He wrapped an arm around her waist and she leaned heavily on him.</p>
<p>“Who’s trying to contact you?” she asked. Anakin’s brow furrowed even deeper than it already had and she almost regretted asking.</p>
<p>“The Chancellor,” he said darkly, “but... I can’t think about him right now.”</p>
<p>Padmé thought it was uncharacteristic of him to say something like that about the Chancellor--or at least with that expression on his face. She was still formulating a response when Anakin stumbled. Padmé barely managed to keep upright, leaning on him as heavily as she was. When she looked over at her husband, he was pressing his free hand to his head, grimacing and squeezing his eyes shut. The reprimand she had been intending to give him died on her lips.</p>
<p>“Ani! What’s wrong?”</p>
<p>“The Force—” he managed, “it’s <em>burning</em>.”</p>
<p>Padmé’s eyes searched for the Jedi Temple on the horizon, as if it would somehow offer explanation. It did.</p>
<p>“Oh, stars,” she breathed, “Ani, look!”</p>
<p>He followed her gaze to the Temple and the billowing cloud of smoke that had begun to emanate from it.</p>
<p>The couple had barely taken in the sight before them before Padmé doubled over from another contraction, renewing her grip on her husband. They were both bowed with pain and shock for a moment before Anakin seemed to recover a bit and lifted her into his arms. He carried her to their bed and set her down on some towels EmDee had laid out. When the pain faded enough for Padmé to come to her senses and realize where she was, she asked,</p>
<p>“Did someone bomb the temple again?”</p>
<p>Anakin went to the window in the bedroom. He placed both palms on it and leaned forward, eyes fixed on the smoke from the Jedi Temple. In profile, there was something hauntingly familiar about his expression, and suddenly Padmé could almost feel the heat of twin suns on her skin, and the burning sands under her feet where she had watched Anakin carry his mother’s--</p>
<p>“I don’t think so. Or—not just bombed. They’re being attacked. I can feel Jedi dying. So many…somehow…Palpatine must’ve—”</p>
<p>“Palpatine?!” Padmé interrupted, incredulous. Anakin hesitated for a moment.</p>
<p>“Palpatine is the Sith lord we’ve been searching for. Windu took a group of masters to arrest him, but they must have failed. This must be his… retaliation.” Anakin replied in a dead tone, refusing to look at her.</p>
<p>“But why would he be <em>calling</em> you?”</p>
<p>“He… I think he wanted me to <em>join</em> him.”</p>
<p>Padmé’s answering moan was from a mixture of shock and pain as the next contraction hit her. There was too much going on. She wanted this baby out <em>now</em>. When the pain was over, she told EmDee,</p>
<p>“I feel like I need to push.”</p>
<p>She turned her head to look at Anakin, who had rushed back to her side and taken her hand during the contraction. He was using his right hand, and she wasn’t sure whether to be offended he was protecting himself from her painful grip, or grateful she didn’t have to worry about being at all gentle. The droid busied itself with another examination.</p>
<p>“Why did Palpatine think you would join the Sith?” she gasped, trying to catch her breath.</p>
<p>“He said he knew a way to save you. He said he could teach me,” he replied, keeping his gaze fixed on the medical droid, refusing to meet her eyes.</p>
<p>“But you didn’t—” she asked, suddenly dreading the answer.</p>
<p>“No. I reported him to Master Windu instead,” Anakin paused.</p>
<p>“And now, I fear it’s too late for him to help you,” he finished, sounding utterly defeated, but with panic clear in his eyes.</p>
<p>“Senator, you are ready to push when the next contraction comes. I will count for you,” EmDee interrupted, placing an appendage on her stomach, “I will also monitor the babies’ heartbeats to ensure everything is going smoothly.”</p>
<p>Padmé barely registered the implications of what the droid had said before she felt another contraction coming.</p>
<p>“Here we go!” she warned, at the same time Anakin exclaimed, “Heartbeats?! More than one?”</p>
<p>The droid did not answer Anakin, instead intoning,</p>
<p>“Push, one, two, three…” and counting all the way to ten, several times with breaks in between. Padmé dared not think of anything else but following its instructions and squeezing Anakin’s hand tightly in her own.</p>
<p>As soon as the contraction was gone, Anakin asked, his voice climbing in pitch,</p>
<p>“EmDee, please tell me our baby doesn’t have <em>two hearts</em> or something.”</p>
<p>Padmé’s ragged breaths caught in her throat for a moment as her mind finally caught up to what was being said.</p>
<p>“What?!” She blurted.</p>
<p>“No sir, the Senator has two babies, each with one healthy heart,” the droid responded.</p>
<p>“I—<em>twins?</em>” Anakin asked.</p>
<p>“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Padmé questioned the droid, not sure how she felt besides absolutely betrayed by it. It had been giving her weekly checkups since she had learned she was pregnant. It seemed impossible that this had never come up.</p>
<p>“You requested that it be kept a surprise, Senator,” the droid responded in its unaffected monotone that contrasted sharply with Anakin and Padmé’s mounting incredulity. She was nervous, she was elated, she was scared, <em>and</em> she was annoyed at the medical droid.</p>
<p>“I meant I wanted the sex of the baby to be a surprise, not the <em>number </em>of babies!” Padmé cried.</p>
<p>She had intended to continue berating the droid, but another contraction was coming on, and her next words were overtaken by a moan of pain. Her attention went back to pushing and the enormous pressure she was feeling on her pelvis.</p>
<p>When she regained a modicum of composure, she lolled her head on the bed to look at Anakin again. For all that she had believed, until now, that there was nothing to worry about health-wise, Padmé was scared. Maybe it was the pain, the shock of the twins, or Anakin’s worry was finally spilling over to her, but she was <em>frightened</em>.</p>
<p>“Ani, I don’t know if I can do this for two babies.”</p>
<p>But Anakin—in defiance of all rationality—was grinning, the Jedi Temple and Palpatine apparently momentarily forgotten. Whatever reaction she was having, Anakin seemed to be having the opposite. Maybe he had finally cracked.</p>
<p>“Of course you can, Angel, you’re the strongest woman I know. Just think, we’ll have <em>two</em> beautiful babies at the end of it!”</p>
<p>Anakin’s sudden enthusiasm was so contagious that Padmé huffed out a laugh and mustered the energy to lean over and kiss him.</p>
<p>When they broke apart, Anakin addressed the med droid,</p>
<p>“And I’m <em>definitely</em> reprogramming you when this is over.”</p>
<p>After several more contractions, Padmé began to cry out from pain and effort. The pain invaded her thoughts, so much so that she could barely remember that she was scared. It was all she could do to get from one moment to the next, feeling only her own body and Anakin’s hand in hers. Several more contractions later, her cries were joined by that of an infant.</p>
<p>Padmé sobbed as the squalling, messy child was placed on her chest.</p>
<p>“A son!” Anakin said beside her, his voice choked with tears. Without taking her eyes off her baby Padmé breathed,</p>
<p>“Luke.”</p>
<p>Padmé moved her hand to caress his little head, transfixed. Anakin, still kneeling beside the bed, grabbed a towel and began to gently clean Luke off. EmDee moved in to clamp and cut the umbilical cord.</p>
<p>“He’s so tiny,” Padmé marveled.</p>
<p>“Twins typically are smaller,” EmDee interrupted, mistaking her awe for concern, “He seems to be very healthy, but I can check him over later if you’d like.”</p>
<p>Padmé nodded and looked to Anakin as she felt another contraction coming.</p>
<p>“Anakin, take him, the next one is—<em>mmph,</em>” she moaned.</p>
<p>Anakin quickly maneuvered the towel under Luke and lifted him off his mother’s chest, as she gripped the sheets tightly, absent her husband’s hand. The medical droid laid an appendage on her stomach to perform a scan and said,</p>
<p>“The second child is in the correct position for delivery. You are very lucky, Senator.”</p>
<p>Padmé wasn’t sure she felt very lucky as pain overwhelmed her senses.</p>
<p>“Come on, Angel, you can do it—you’ve already done it once—it’ll be easy,” Anakin whispered in her ear, his voice overlapping with EmDee’s renewed instructions to push.</p>
<p>When Padmé trusted herself to speak coherently again she told her husband,</p>
<p>“Don’t you dare tell me this is easy, Anakin Skywalker! I would slap you if you didn’t have that baby in your arms!”</p>
<p>Anakin just laughed. And gods, if this—<em>twins</em>—was what it had taken to wipe that terrible, brooding, desperate look of the past several days—years—off his face, Padmé would take it.</p>
<p>“Well, if you won’t do it for me, do it for Luke. He wants to meet his brother or sister.”</p>
<p>Padmé spared a small, fond smile for her son, who had calmed down a little in his father’s arms.</p>
<p>“Ok,” she whispered as more pain gripped her.</p>
<p>Only a few agonizing minutes later, Leia Skywalker was born. She fit into Padmé’s arms like she had always belonged there—like a piece of Padmé had always been missing and had just slipped into place.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Threats</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leia was a warm, soft, small presence in his arms. Fragile, in a magnificent way. She was beautiful—the pure, exquisite beauty of creation and life, the kind the light side of the Force was supposed to be. She was marvelous because she and her brother had not existed nine months ago, yet the galaxy would now be utterly incomplete without them.</p>
<p>And, more than that, she and Luke were his. His and Padmé’s, born in the private rooms of a rich Senator’s apartments, born safe and loved and <em>free</em>. And he was right, Anakin thought, in naming her <em>Leia</em>. He was sure, especially after the way she had imposed herself on his world, that she would grow up to be mighty, no matter what she chose to do with her life. He couldn’t wait to see it, yet he never wanted this moment to give way to the next, leaving him free to press endless, gentle kisses on her little face and hands. His daughter.</p>
<p>But, the serene bubble created by Anakin’s love for the tiny, pink, perfect baby girl he held in his arms was shattered by the warning that he suddenly felt permeate the Force. He tore his gaze from Leia’s peaceful face, flinching, and surveyed the bedroom with narrowed eyes. He registered the chrono on the bedside table: it had been almost an hour since the twins had been born and EmDee had pronounced them and their mother to be healthy, but it had passed in what seemed like a second to Anakin, enamored as he was with his new little family.</p>
<p>Padmé, tucked into the bed next to him with her head resting on his shoulder, gasped a little. She had been startled by his sudden movement. Anakin’s gaze lingered on the sight of the Jedi temple in the window. It had grown dark outside and the temple still burned an angry red, fires causing the haze of smoke that hung over the once-proud building to glow eerily.</p>
<p>“What is it, Anakin?”</p>
<p>“I—"</p>
<p>He furrowed his brow, taking a deep breath and sinking slightly deeper into the Force to see if it could elaborate on what he had just felt. He blinked, feeling drawn to look down at his wrist where his comm unit usually would be. He shifted Leia slightly in his arms to do so and only then did he vaguely recall having thrown the comm across the living room earlier. Unfolding himself from his comfortable position on the bed, Anakin stretched out his senses, finding quickly the faint beeping coming from the other room now that he knew to listen for it.</p>
<p>“Someone’s comming me… I should…”</p>
<p>Anakin was already leaning down as he said this, handing Leia to her mother. He felt as if he was underwater, his thoughts slow to resurface from the musings he had been engaged in just moments earlier. Anakin took another deep breath.</p>
<p>“I’ll be right back,” he said slightly more confidently and gave Padmé a quick peck on the cheek after getting Leia situated in her arms. He left before his wife got a chance to ask any questions.</p>
<p>It didn’t take him long to find the comm, even though it was lying halfway under one of Padmé’s potted plants from when he’d chucked it. He fumbled with connecting it to the holoprojector he kept on his belt, setting the transmitter down on the floor and pressing the button to answer it.</p>
<p>A life-size hologram of Chancellor Palpatine greeted him.</p>
<p>The Chancellor didn’t even wait for Anakin to give his typical, automatic greeting for business calls, a curt “Skywalker here,” before beginning,</p>
<p>“Anakin, my dear boy, I was beginning to wonder what had happened to you!”</p>
<p>“Sorry, Chancellor,” Anakin began, but stopped short of giving an explanation of what had kept him from Palpatine’s office hours ago. The warning he was feeling in the Force had become even more persistent as Anakin was about to tell him, so he quickly shut his mouth before saying any more. Everything that had transpired between him and his friend was rushing back to the forefront of his mind. He couldn’t even begin to untangle the mess of emotions seeing the Chancellor made him feel, let alone tease out more what the Force may or may not have been telling him.</p>
<p>Palpatine had paused, clearly waiting for Anakin to elaborate.  When he didn’t, Palpatine continued,</p>
<p>“Anakin, the Jedi have attempted to overthrow me, just as I had foreseen. They are not to be trusted. Fortunately, my guards managed to fend them off, though it was a narrow thing. Surely, the traitorous Jedi will send more assassins after me, and I fear I won’t survive.”</p>
<p>Palpatine’s face contorted into something very concerned, an expression Anakin had seen on him a hundred times in strategy meetings and during private conversations, but something about it seemed different now: it was almost fake.</p>
<p>“I—am sorry to hear that, Chancellor,” Anakin said flatly, falling back on what Obi Wan had taught him about speaking to politicians without really saying anything, though it had been several years since Anakin had <em>really</em> thought of Palpatine as a politician like the rest. He still didn’t know what to think, let alone how to act. His brain, frustratingly slow, was just beginning to process that this man, <em>this man</em>, whom he had trusted was a <em>Sith Lord.</em></p>
<p>“Surely you must realize that if the Jedi kill me, it will mean certain death for your wife. You must come protect me from the Jedi’s assassins, Anakin, or you will never get to meet your child. We must seek out and destroy the remaining Jedi so they will not become a threat to your family.” Palpatine continued, sounding deeply concerned about the possibility. There was a hint of a snarl in his voice.</p>
<p>Finally, Anakin’s brain rushed to catch up with the conversation. Right, Padmé had been in <em>danger.</em> But, his children had been born and they were all <em>fine, and how could he ever have doubted that they would all be okay, they were perfect. </em>Anakin had the urge to glance past the hologram to the hallway that led to the bedroom, where Padmé was resting with Luke and Leia, but fought it down at the last second, suddenly much more wary of Palpatine’s scrutiny.</p>
<p><em>He’s a Sith Lord, he’s a Sith Lord, he’s a Sith Lord.</em> Palpatine was a dangerous, dangerous man, and Anakin had been blind to it.</p>
<p>With clearer eyes, Anakin meet his mentor’s gaze and found something profoundly disturbing there. For a second his mind began to replay the visions he had been having, but the real images of Padmé kept invading his train of thought. She, with strands of hair sticking to her sweaty face, her rosy cheeks and fond smile, cradling their son in her arms, <em>she</em> was real.</p>
<p>Palpatine had <em>lied</em>, Anakin realized suddenly. He had fed Anakin’s fears about Padmé’s death when there had been no danger at all. Or if there had been danger, it had passed now.</p>
<p>Wait, how did he even know that Padmé was in danger? Anakin <em>had</em> been planning on telling Palpatine about his visions, but the man had known before Anakin had even said anything. How many of their secrets had he guessed? How long had he known? How many of the Republic’s secrets had the <em>Separatists</em> guessed—and <em>how</em>? How many others was Palpatine manipulating this way? How long had he been pulling the strings of the Republic?</p>
<p>Palpatine must have sensed Anakin’s growing mistrust because his grandfatherly demeanor changed almost instantly. Anakin could not pretend that he was looking at his mentor and not a Sith.</p>
<p>“What <em>lies</em> have the <em>Jedi</em> been feeding you?” Palpatine demanded harshly. “Do you really think that the Jedi would let you keep your family, after all you have done—every time you’ve defied their precious code? The acceptance you seek is not with them. I can offer you power beyond what any Jedi has ever dreamed, Anakin. You’re more powerful than any of them. They have been denying you your rightful place.”</p>
<p>“Come, join me, and it shall be yours,” Palpatine snarled, spitting out each word.</p>
<p>This time, Anakin did look towards his family for a moment. He knew where his rightful place was, and it certainly wasn’t with the Sith. The Sith, who had sent assassins and battle droids after Padmé and Obi Wan and Ahsoka time and time again. But the dark side—and he knew intimately and terribly what it felt like, tempting, corrupting, and suffocating—would not come for his children, if only because he would not let it.</p>
<p>“You’re wrong,” Anakin accused softly, shaking his head. He began to feel a familiar blaze of conviction grow in him.</p>
<p>“I don’t need your power. I just need <em>them</em>,” Anakin said, louder, realizing the truth of his words even as they rushed out of my mouth.</p>
<p>“You foolish boy!” Palpatine spat. “Only through my power will you grow strong enough to protect the ones you love. If you do not join me, your world will burn,” Palpatine promised.</p>
<p>Suddenly, Anakin knew with horrible certainty that the Sith himself intended to light the flame.</p>
<p>Doubt and despair flooded back to him in an instant. Was he really powerful enough to stop the Sith Lord that had been eluding the council for so many years? It would be easier if Anakin just did what Palpatine was asking. Maybe then the man would spare his family. It might be the only way to kee[ them safe.</p>
<p>Palpatine read him like a book.</p>
<p>“See, young Skywalker? You are <em>nothing</em> without the power of the dark side,”</p>
<p><em>Nothing, nothing, nothing</em>. <em>Not strong enough to save her, to save mom, to save Padmé, Leia, Luke.</em></p>
<p>It was every doubt Anakin tried constantly to push aside and ignore. Each victory on the battlefield held them bay for a while—each clone or civilian life he saved—but they always came back. He was so tired of feeling this way.</p>
<p>“Stop! Leave me alone,” Anakin half-shouted-half-sobbed. Where had his confidence of a moment ago gone? He felt lost again, just as he had as he lingered, despairing, in the council chambers earlier that evening.</p>
<p>“You will never be free of the pull of the dark side, Skywalker. <em>Never,</em>” Palpatine hounded him.</p>
<p>Of course he could never be free. Every lie he had ever told himself came crashing down upon Anakin—every time he had given in to destruction, violence, and desperate fury, and then ignored how some part of him had enjoyed it, telling himself that it was the last time. But he would always be sinking, inexorably, back down.</p>
<p><em>All things die, Anakin Skywalker</em>. The dark whispered to him. <em>Even stars burn out.</em></p>
<p>And what stars he had now, resting, unprepared and unguarded, in their mother’s arms.</p>
<p>“You will either join me or I will bring everything you love crashing down around you because of your defiance,” the Sith continued. He slowed his words, every syllable deliberate and sending spikes of dread through Anakin.</p>
<p>“Joining me is your only hope.”</p>
<p>Anakin spent a few long seconds staring at the holographic figure of his former mentor. Luke and Leia and Padmé—threatened by the specter of a father and husband who was chained to his own inner darkness if he agreed, condemned to be snuffed out by the specter in front of him if he didn’t. Anakin didn’t want to have to make this choice—anything but this.</p>
<p>Then, a faint brush of fabric against the floor to his left, from the hallway.</p>
<p>Anakin jumped, turning. When, he looked over, he saw her.</p>
<p>His beautiful, strong wife, somehow looking proud and defiant even while leaning against the wall in nothing but a nightgown—even with concern written on her face. Anakin locked eyes with Padmé. She would never approve of him doing something despicable for her sake. She deserved better. She deserved for him to be stronger. She had always pulled him back from his despair: every time. She loved him. She knew him, and she still loved him.</p>
<p>He saw a new image of Padmé’s death, somehow both more and less horrible than the ones that had haunted his sleep: Palpatine, laughing, pushing a blood red lightsaber through her stomach and Padmé gasping, crumpling, shock on her face.</p>
<p>It would be different, Anakin decided. This time, he could make sure the vision would never happen. Anakin knew the language of lightsabers: the rush of deflecting an opponent’s blade moments before the fatal blow would land. He knew it like he knew the sound of his own blood rushing in his ears.</p>
<p>The thought of willingly joining someone who wanted to hurt her—of not fighting like hell to keep her safe... <em>Never</em>.</p>
<p>“Who is there, boy?” Palpatine interrogated, his voice a full, deep growl. Anakin ignored the question.</p>
<p>“No.” Anakin Skywalker said, “How <em>dare</em> you threaten my family? I’ll never join you.”</p>
<p>Palpatine roared.</p>
<p>“Who dares poison your mind against me?!” He raged.</p>
<p>Anakin ignored this too.</p>
<p>“You want to hurt my family? You won’t even get <em>close</em>. No. I’m coming for you, Darth Sidious."</p>
<hr/>
<p>Anakin ended the call before Palpatine could say anything further. Padmé took in the sight of her husband, standing defiant in front of the Chancellor’s collapsing holographic figure. But as soon as the light of the hologram had faded, Anakin seemed to deflate, hastily stumbling back a few steps and covering his face with trembling hands. Alarmed, Padmé pushed off the wall to go to him.</p>
<p>Anakin had said that Palpatine was a Sith Lord, but she hadn’t had the time or attention to imagine what that really <em>meant</em>.</p>
<p>Padmé made her way over to him slowly. Her whole body was sore; Emdee had tried to stop her when she had gotten out of bed. She, however, had been more concerned about the heated conversation she could hear from the other room. Her husband had been so stressed and conflicted, and judging by his demeanor as he left to take the call, even his joy at their babies’ birth couldn’t overshadow his troubles for long.</p>
<p>She snaked her arms around his waist and Anakin, even as shaken as he seemed, didn’t hesitate to return the gesture. They stayed that way for a few moments before Padmé drew back a little to get a look at her husband’s face. The lights on the veranda cast shadows on his skin and he looked like he might be sick. Padmé framed his drawn face with her hands.</p>
<p>“What’s going on, Ani?”</p>
<p>Anakin took a while to answer. Finally, he took a deep breath:</p>
<p>“He wants me to join the Sith. At first, he promised he could help me save you.” She knew this already.</p>
<p>“Now he’s… threatening you.”</p>
<p>Padmé started to draw back in surprise. That the Supreme Chancellor would do such a thing to a senator seemed unimaginable to her. But he <em>was</em> a Sith. She had very limited experience with Sith, but witnessing the Chancellor’s demeanor, even through the hologram, made her believe Anakin. She wasn’t as concerned about the prospect of being threatened, though. At this point assassination attempts were almost a regular occurrence.</p>
<p>“And what did you mean—when you said you were <em>coming</em> for him?”</p>
<p>“I’m not just going to let him get away with threatening to hurt you, Padmé. And… well—” his expression changed, “I’d be a pretty lousy Jedi Knight if I didn’t.”</p>
<p>Padmé recognized the sliver of Anakin’s particular brand of bravado in that statement, but it wasn’t nearly enough to convince her that he was okay.</p>
<p>“What can I do to help, Anakin?”</p>
<p>Anakin just blinked at her.</p>
<p><em>Typical.</em> Padmé thought. He seemed to always believe that he had to do things alone. She had tried to convince him time and time again that the whole galaxy didn’t rest squarely on his shoulders. Anakin had a veritable army of people who would jump at the chance to help him if he would just let them. He never seemed to realize what he did to people.</p>
<p>“Well, I’m not just going to stand around and take it either!” She explained herself rather than psychoanalyze her husband to his face.</p>
<p>Anakin drew back to look at her.</p>
<p>“You can start by getting off your feet for me,” he said, obviously seeing some of her own exhaustion in her face just as she had seen his.</p>
<p>Padmé opened her mouth to protest: that hadn’t been what she’d meant. Anakin cut her off,</p>
<p>“I’m serious. You literally just pushed two humans out of your body.” He hesitated. “If we have to run, you’ll need your strength.”</p>
<p>“Run? I thought you just said that you were coming for Palpatine,”</p>
<p>Anakin shook his head.</p>
<p>“I’m not taking this lying down and <em>neither is he. </em>He’s—” her husband struggled for words, staring at the ceiling for a moment before meeting her gaze again. Padmé itched to shoot back about taking things <em>lying down</em> after he had just told her to literally do so, but she held her tongue. Getting Anakin to tell her what he was thinking was a struggle even under better circumstances. Whatever bravado and authority he had mustered up was gone when he spoke again,</p>
<p>“He’s very powerful, and I’m not sure that I’ll be able to—it might be our only option.”</p>
<p>That scared her. It was very unlike Anakin to admit a perceived weakness so bluntly.</p>
<p>“Okay,” Padmé agreed, instinct pushing her to just do <em>something</em> that would take that look off his face, then thought better of it. Running away from her problems, her mother had always wisely said, would only make them more difficult to solve. But Anakin was—Anakin was terrified. He wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore, not like he had when he’d first told her about his nightmares. She hadn’t wanted to believe it before, that she was in real danger, but now—</p>
<p>Well, she couldn’t solve any problems if she was dead.</p>
<p>“Okay,” she conceded again, more certain this time. Turning back towards the bedroom, Padmé winced as the movement pulled at her abdomen. Anakin followed closely, a hand protectively braced on her back.</p>
<p>“Are you still hurting very badly?” he asked as they started down the hall.</p>
<p>She told him she was: even though EmDee had applied some numbing agent after the birth, her muscles were still sore. Once they made it back to the bedroom, she gingerly lowered herself to sit on the bed. He sat beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist and leaving his hand to rest on her still distended abdomen.</p>
<p>“I might be able to do something about that, if you’ll let me” he offered, and Padmé realized he was talking about using the Force.</p>
<p>“You can do that?” she asked. Of course, Padmé had seen Anakin use the Force plenty of times before—mostly in hostile situations, but not always—and had heard him refer to the temple healers on occasion. She just hadn’t really thought of <em>Anakin</em> using the Force in that way. He never seemed to talk about the Force in the more abstract, spiritual terms she had heard other Jedi like Master Yoda use.</p>
<p>“It’s a useful skill, on the battlefield,” Anakin explained, “I do it on myself often enough.”</p>
<p>She hadn’t really needed convincing, she was just surprised, so Padmé nodded. Anakin breathed deeply beside her, and she felt a pleasant warmth spread through her body for a few moments. She relaxed into the sensation. Anakin pulled his hand away after a little while longer and sheepishly said,</p>
<p>“Hopefully that helps.”</p>
<p>Padmé scooted herself backwards on the bed experimentally and, sure enough, moving was significantly less painful than it had been.</p>
<p>“Thank you, Love,” she said fondly.</p>
<p>The medical droid had been watching over the babies, who were squirming and awake on the other side of the bed. Anakin walked around the foot of the bed to pick one up: Leia, Padmé was fairly sure. She learned over and drew Luke into her arms.</p>
<p>Padmé took a steadying breath.</p>
<p>“What now?”</p>
<p>“I… go to him and kill him,” Anakin said, shrugging.</p>
<p>It was a deceptively simple solution, and very dangerous. A very Anakin-esque plan-that-wasn’t-really-a-plan: more of just a goal, really. But what else had she expected him to say? What other options were there?</p>
<p>“With no backup?” she prompted.</p>
<p>“What backup, Padmé?” He retorted hotly. “Windu took three other masters with him, and Palpatine said they were all dead. Probably killed them himself.”</p>
<p><em>Four Jedi masters, dead. </em>The back of Padme’s neck prickled, and she knew what she would find if she turned to look. The Jedi Temple still burned outside the window. Suddenly, even though she had said she would support him, Padmé very much wanted to forbid Anakin from ever going near the Supreme Chancellor again.</p>
<p>“We can’t just leave him there…” Anakin said resignedly, “and…well… it’s my destiny.”</p>
<p>Right. Anakin was supposed to be the Jedi Order’s “Chosen One.” Padmé knew that he hated to think about the title and about the expectations it led others to pile unceasingly upon him. He had only ever embraced it when he wanted to be cheeky and arrogant—to make jokes—or to win an argument. But personally, she could believe it. Knowing Anakin’s heart as she did and seeing his power on display many times made it easy to believe he was very special indeed. It was why she loved him.</p>
<p>She had never before wished her husband to be anything different from who he was meant to be, but she did now. She didn’t know what she would have said next but was spared from making a response. Anakin’s head snapped to the side, clearly sensing something.</p>
<p>Padmé very much doubted it was anything good.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This chapter is just 3500+ words of me waxing poetic about Anakin and Padme's inner conflict. It is also part of my ongoing project to get a good sense of Palpatine as a villain. I understand why he acts the way he does in the canon material, but getting a handle on his speech patterns and how he would react when things don't go to plan is harder for me.</p>
<p>I really hope all the characterizations rang true!</p>
<p>Palpatine's threats here are basically the part of Odysseus' story when the Greeks put baby Telemachus in front of Odysseus' plow when he's pretending to be blind. Sorry, Anakin, but you can't just sit this one out to hang with your family.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. So Long, Farwell</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry this is late today! It's finals week at my university and I got caught up in writing papers :(</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Kriff.</em>
</p>
<p>So much for leaving Padmé here while he went and did his level best to bring balance to the Force.</p>
<p>A sinister presence was approaching from the lower levels of the building. He almost expected it to be Palpatine himself, but it was too controlled for that. <em>Clones</em>, he realized— but not like what they usually felt like at all. Something was wrong with them, very wrong, but he could nevertheless tell there was violence in their intentions. He would have to figure out what was wrong with the men later, but right now the only thing he could think about was that he and Padmé and the twins would all have to leave here, and soon.</p>
<p><em>Won’t even do his own dirty work,</em> Anakin thought bitterly.</p>
<p>“Padmé, he’s sent clones after us.” He told her.</p>
<p>His wife looked at him sharply, her eyes wide.</p>
<p>“<em>Clones</em>? How much time do we have?” she asked.</p>
<p>“They’re already in the building,” he replied grimly, mind racing, already moving across the room to grab a bag and fill it with essentials.</p>
<p>“Threepio!” Padmé called as she rose from the bed, “Come quickly!”</p>
<p>“Out the trapdoor in the spare bedroom?” Anakin asked. He knew the secret passageway well from his days of sneaking into the apartment to see his wife between deployments. Palpatine might know about it, but it would buy them some time either way.</p>
<p>“Well, I don’t think leaving through the front door or from the speeder dock is a good idea,” Padmé replied, with a grunt of frustration and a touch of sarcasm in her voice.</p>
<p>C-3PO appeared in the doorway.</p>
<p>“Whatever could it be now, milady?” he asked worriedly.</p>
<p>“If someone comes to the door, be slow answering it. Don’t let them know that Anakin and I have been here recently. We need time to escape,” she ordered, now leaning on the bed post.</p>
<p>“But who would come to the door at this hour?” Threepio asked, seeming offended at the prospect.</p>
<p>“Somehow, I doubt the clones came for a friendly chat,” Anakin snarked, more for Padmé’s benefit than Threepio’s. He stuffed the diapers Padmé had bought last week and blankets into the bag with one hand, then stepped through to Padmé’s closet to grab her a cloak and some shoes.</p>
<p>“Force knows what Palpatine will do to the twins.” Padmé said, with clear horror. “Ani…they’re strong in the Force aren’t they?” They had talked about it briefly—about their child possibly becoming a Jedi and learning to control the power Anakin suspected he or she would possess. Neither of them had been keen on the idea of giving their baby up at such a young age to be trained, however necessary the Jedi would view that to be. With the uncertainty about the war and Anakin’s own conflicted feelings about his long-term relationship with the Order, they had only managed to agree to revisit the issue later.</p>
<p>Anakin reappeared from the closet, and the grim look on his face evidently confirmed his wife’s suspicions. How strange was it that, just days ago, he had been excited at the prospect that his child would be strong with the Force—that they would share such a fundamental connection? Now, it was something more akin to a death sentence.</p>
<p>A glance out the window and the screaming in the Force that he was trying very hard to not dwell on told him that even being an ordinary Jedi had just become very dangerous. And, being the children of the Chosen One, when their father’s power so tempted the Sith, the twins would be at even greater risk. The line of thought sent Anakin reeling again. The man he trusted had <em>used</em> him for his power and would want to use his children to the same end, if he got the chance. Had Palpatine ever truly cared about him at all? All those times Anakin had been embarrassed at the Chancellor’s public praise, every time he remarked that Anakin was <em>special</em>, the most powerful Jedi in the Order—was there some colder meaning behind that, some strategy? Probably.</p>
<p>One of the first things Jedi were taught about the Sith was that they were obsessed with power. Anakin had always thought that was more characteristic of <em>people,</em> not just Sith. But he had allowed himself to think that Palpatine was different. A mistake.</p>
<p>“What could the Supreme Chancellor possibly want with Master Luke and Mistress Leia?” C3PO asked, oblivious to the turn Anakin’s thoughts had taken.</p>
<p>“No more questions, Threepio, just go and tell Artoo to meet us with the speeder at the exit of the passageway on the lower levels,” Anakin ordered.</p>
<p>“Oh dear, what a day!” C3PO exclaimed before leaving to find R2D2.</p>
<p>Anakin went over to Padmé, setting her shoes on the floor and dropping the cloak and hastily packed bag on the bed. His eye caught on the medical droid that still hovered in the room. Anakin stretched out his free hand, let himself sink into the Force to feel the droid’s inner parts. Twisting wires, speeding electrical pulses, and <em>there: </em>the memory chip that held the evidence of their children’s birth. He made a squeezing motion and felt the chip die. The medical droid sparked and powered down.</p>
<p>Anakin refocused, the droid dealt with, and held out his arm for Luke so Padmé could slip her feet into her shoes and her arms into the cloak. She was still wearing her thin nightgown. He tried to think of anything else that they might need that he could easily retrieve and bring with them, using the Force to unlock the hidden drawer in Padmé’s nightstand and float their data stick full of emergency credits into his pocket.</p>
<p>He passed Luke back to Padmé again, then bent to retrieve the blaster she kept under the mattress. Luckily, he and Padmé were of the same mind about this type of contingency planning. He knew that if she had been wearing her senatorial robes, she would have had at least one concealed weapon on her person. Anakin shouldered the bag he had been packing, hoping he wasn’t forgetting anything, and took his lightsaber into the hand that wasn’t holding his daughter.</p>
<p>Insistent and aggressive knocking echoed through the apartment.</p>
<p>“Go!” Anakin hissed as he started towards the spare bedroom, trusting his wife to follow.</p>
<p>More pounding on the door.</p>
<p>“Coruscant Guard! Let us in immediately!”</p>
<p>Distantly they could hear Threepio’s slow shuffling steps and his voice replying, “Oh dear! There’s no need to be rude, I’ll be with you in just a moment,”</p>
<p>“Good old Threepio,” Anakin muttered under his breath as he felt along the wall for the hidden door’s release.</p>
<p>A section of the wall opened, revealing a grim hallway, automatic lights turning on along its length every few feet.</p>
<p>Stomping footsteps in the entryway sounded as Anakin let Padmé slip through the doorway ahead of him. He didn’t even bother finding the handle to close it behind them, using the force to silently slide it shut with his back turned.</p>
<p>A door somewhere in the apartment slammed, and something shattered.</p>
<p>Luke let out a wail, startled by the noise and the sudden change in his surroundings. Leia scrunched her face up, as if prepared to do the same.</p>
<p>Their mother and father looked at each other, wide eyed, hoping that it hadn’t been heard. They kept moving.</p>
<p>Anakin replaced his lightsaber on his belt and shifted Leia to his mechanical arm, pressing a flesh finger to her forehead to give her a sleep suggestion with the Force. Her eyelids drifted closed almost immediately. He reached forward to do the same to Luke.</p>
<p>“Hopefully that should keep them from making more noise,” he murmured to Padmé, who nodded tersely.</p>
<p>The hallway turned up ahead, leading to the door to the stairwell. As they rounded the corner, they heard loud voices coming from the room they just vacated.</p>
<p>“I think I heard something, Commander, coming from here!”</p>
<p>The Skywalker family crossed through to the stairwell landing, and Anakin turned to fuse the door shut with the heat of his lightsaber, as Padmé started down the stairs with Luke. This would be a challenge, he thought, despite the small amount of healing he had been able to do on her. The only way out was down, so Anakin followed her, putting himself between his wife and the danger he dreaded would catch up to them.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Padmé’s thoughts were still catching up with the frantic action of the last several minutes. She was <em>tired</em> and strung-out, and all she wanted was to still be in bed, memorizing every plane of her new son’s face and marveling at each delicate finger of her baby daughter’s little hands. But, nothing for her and Anakin could ever be easy, could it? Too often, it felt like the whole galaxy was against them; Padmé could never seem to escape the feeling for long.</p>
<p>Above them, loud banging echoed from the hallway they had left.</p>
<p>“I guess they found the hidden door,” Padmé said breathily to her husband, taking the steps as quickly as she could without slipping.</p>
<p>“If they get to us, I’ll fight while you keep going with the twins,” Anakin ordered, right behind her.</p>
<p>“No!” Padmé shot back with a stage whisper as loud as she dared. “They could kill you, Anakin! Besides, I won’t be fast enough. I’ll stay back.”</p>
<p>Anakin scowled. “Well, I can hold them off for longer than you can. And I don’t <em>like</em> the idea of leaving you either, but Luke and Leia need their mother!”</p>
<p>“They need their father too!”</p>
<p>“It’s me he wants, he won’t go after you if he’s already got me!”</p>
<p>“Exactly! It’s you he wants, so we can’t let him have you.”</p>
<p>“Padmé, I need to protect you!”</p>
<p>“And I need to protect <em>you</em>!” She hissed back. They had descended several flights at this point, and Padmé was definitely regretting choosing to live in the penthouse.</p>
<p>“There’s obviously no good options here,” she reasoned. Luckily, judging by the noises from above them, the clones hadn’t managed to breach the trapdoor in her apartments yet.</p>
<p>“You gave birth just an hour ago, and now we’re running for our lives, of course there aren’t,” Anakin complained.</p>
<p>Clearly, they weren’t getting anywhere with this line of argument, so Padmé decided to move on, hoping the situation wouldn’t come to that.</p>
<p>“What are we going to do after we get out of here?” She asked instead.</p>
<p>“You and the twins need to get off-planet, but they’ll be monitoring Coruscant’s airspace,” Anakin admitted, frustrated.</p>
<p>“If they came to the apartment, no doubt they’ll be watching my staff and contacts in the senate closely,” Padmé reasoned. “Obi Wan or Ahsoka?”</p>
<p> “Even if I knew for certain they’re alive, neither was on-planet when all this started.”</p>
<p> “Do we have any other contacts on Coruscant?” she asked.</p>
<p>“Well, there’s the 501<sup>st</sup> but I doubt we could make contact with any of them without getting caught. And they’re…they might be a part of the attack on the Temple,” he said.</p>
<p>Padmé grimaced at the mention of what was happening to the Jedi, but said nothing, continuing to rack her brain for any contacts she’d forgotten about.</p>
<p>“Dex,” Anakin finally managed. She nodded. Dex would know some way they could get off the planet discretely.</p>
<p>“If Artoo manages to meet us then we should be able to get to him fairly quickly,” She added.</p>
<p>“Artoo’s gonna have a hell of a time meeting us without being followed,” Anakin noted grimly.</p>
<p>“We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we—” her reply was broken off by a loud bang from above them and they both looked up.</p>
<p>“They’ll still have to get through to the stairwell. Just keep going,” Anakin reassured her, though he sounded worried.</p>
<p>They continued in terse silence. Padmé’s heavy, shaky breaths echoed through the stairwell, and soon metallic banging from the stairwell door joined them. The door had been thick, though, and it would be tough to open with the number Anakin’s lightsaber had done on it.</p>
<p>A few flights of stairs later, Anakin wordlessly turned and held out his arm to take Luke, knowing that she was struggling with the exertion. He had clipped his lightsaber to his belt. With every bang on the door, Padmé’s heart dropped, but she determinedly kept descending the stairs, leaning on the banister, forcing herself to keep putting one foot in front of the other.</p>
<p>“This…would have been… much worse… if I was still… pregnant,” she tried to joke.</p>
<p>It earned her a sympathetic quirk of Anakin’s lips before he turned to continue down the stairs.</p>
<p>After a few more moments the banging stopped.</p>
<p>“Are they giving up?” Padmé asked hopefully.</p>
<p>Anakin’s eyes widened in recognition.</p>
<p>“No, they’re going to try to blow the door.”</p>
<p>“Will it hold?”</p>
<p>“No idea.”</p>
<p>Anakin stopped and stepped over to the railing. There was a shaft of empty space in the middle of the winding stairwell, so that one could see all the way to the bottom. They had a long way to go.</p>
<p>He turned back towards his wife.</p>
<p>“Remember the <em>Malevolence</em>?” he asked.</p>
<p>Padmé’s brows furrowed. Of course she did, but she couldn’t see why this was the time to bring up that mission. Then she realized what his plan was. She hesitated for a moment--this was not going to be pleasant—then nodded.</p>
<p>Padmé really wouldn’t have had much of a problem with it—at least this time neither of them was on a speeding train—except for the fact that they had two fragile newborns with them.</p>
<p>“I’ll go first, and then help you and the twins down.”</p>
<p>Anakin stepped away from the railing, offering their children to her. He awkwardly managed to transfer both over to Padmé. The upside to this, Padmé thought distantly, her mind scrambling to latch onto anything that wasn’t the death-defying feat she was about to perform, was that they were getting good practice handling two babies at once.</p>
<p>“I won’t be able to climb over the railing with both of them,” she warned.</p>
<p>“That’s okay,” he replied, “I’ll lift you over.”</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t trust myself to keep you safe,” he told her, seeing something doubtful in her face.</p>
<p>She took a shaky breath and nodded. “I trust you.”</p>
<p>He gave her a chaste kiss on her lips and when he pulled back, he was wearing that roguish grin of his that she loved.</p>
<p>“See you in a minute,” Anakin said and then took two quick strides over to the railing, caught it with one hand, and vaulted his body over the side.</p>
<p>Padmé couldn’t bear to look over the railing for a few long seconds, until she heard his voice call up,</p>
<p>“Ready?”</p>
<p>She finally stepped over to the edge, trying to ignore the way her stomach dropped from the height, met his clear blue eyes that were earnestly staring up at her from down below, and nodded.</p>
<p>Her feet lifted off the stairs. Padmé held her babies close and closed her eyes as she was lifted over the railing. She began to fall. An explosion echoed above her.</p>
<p>After what felt like forever, she felt her momentum slow, and a moment later, her feet gently touched the ground. She stood there, catching her breath, trying to calm her pounding heart, before opening her eyes. Anakin was standing at the door that led out to the street, his hand pressed up against it.</p>
<p>“Well, I was wrong about the 501<sup>st</sup> being at the Jedi Temple,” he said.</p>
<p>“They’re waiting for us out there? Will they help us?” Padmé asked, hopeful</p>
<p>“Right outside the door,” Anakin said grimly, his tone virtually answering her second question without him having to say it aloud.</p>
<p>“How could they have known about the passage?”</p>
<p>“Palpatine, maybe. And… normally I <em>would</em> trust them to help us but… they don’t feel right in the Force.”</p>
<p>“What do you mean they don’t feel right?”</p>
<p>“I can sense Rex, but the rest of them… It’s almost like they’re being controlled…I doubt they’ve come here on a rescue mission.”</p>
<p>“How many of them are there?”</p>
<p>Anakin hesitated.</p>
<p>“Too many.”</p>
<p>“Oh, Ani, what are we going to do?” Padmé asked, panic again rising in her chest. She could hear footsteps very faintly from the stairs above her.</p>
<p>Anakin backed away from the door, brow furrowed in concentration. He took a long look at Padmé, with a strange expression that she didn’t like at all in his eyes. She recognized it from when he was leaving for a long campaign, like he thought he might never see her again. Then he looked away, ignited his lightsaber, and went over to plunge it into the wall opposite the door. He was cutting a hole, though it was off to the side and wouldn’t be visible through the open doorway.</p>
<p>“They’re mostly outside that door, but they’ll have a few stationed around the building. If I can draw them away and distract them long enough, you and the babies should be able to get through here without anyone noticing.” He explained, glancing at her, but still cutting.</p>
<p>“You want us to split up? Anakin!”</p>
<p>He was halfway done with the hole and the footsteps above were growing louder.</p>
<p>“You said it yourself: he wants <em>me</em>. And you won’t be safe if I’m with you.”</p>
<p>He was twisting her words: a tactic she enjoyed using perhaps too much in the Senate. She might have been impressed or endeared that he watched so many of her speeches that her senatorial oratory techniques were rubbing off on him, except that he was using it to convince her to split them up again after they had spent so long apart.</p>
<p>“Ani—"</p>
<p>“I promised you I would keep you<em> safe</em>, and this is how I’m going to do it,” he said forcefully.</p>
<p>Once she struggled to work past her emotional response to his suggestion—her heart was screaming in vehement denial—Padmé had to admit, in their situation it seemed the only way out. She doubted she’d be fast enough to outrun Anakin’s troopers if they spotted them together. If they stuck together, there would undoubtedly be a firefight, and Luke and Leia would be in the thick of it. She closed her eyes, resigned, and hot tears spilled out. From stress, fatigue, pain, frustration, or despair, she didn’t know.</p>
<p>She felt Anakin come to stand close to her. He cupped her check with his hand. When she opened her eyes, she saw he was crying too.</p>
<p>“I love you,” she sobbed helplessly.</p>
<p>
  <em>Oh gods, he might die, he might really die this time.</em>
</p>
<p>“I love you too.”</p>
<p>Anakin tenderly moved his hands to Luke and Leia’s soft little heads,</p>
<p>“May the force be with you, Luke. Leia,” he choked out.</p>
<p>A clang sounded from above. The clones in the stairwell were definitely closer now. Anakin’s head snapped up.</p>
<p>He slipped his hand into his pocket and transferred their stick of credits to her. He drew out her own commlink from her cloak pocket. Padmé hadn’t known it was there, but she was relieved to see it.</p>
<p>“I’ll tell Artoo to go around to the other side of the building for you. Get out of here, and <em>don’t</em> wait for me,” he said, and began to speak into the device.</p>
<p>Padmé wracked her brains for a neutral, out-of-the-way planet. This type of planning had always fallen to her handmaidens: she knew they had a list of such places they could rendezvous in a crisis. She cursed herself for not memorizing it also.</p>
<p>“I’ll meet you. On—"</p>
<p>“Don’t.” Anakin interrupted, “I can’t know where you’re going,”</p>
<p>Padmé’s breath left her for a moment from the realities of what that meant, both about what he thought might happen to him—that having the information would be dangerous—and how long it might take them to find each other when this was all over.</p>
<p><em>And it </em>will<em> be over,</em> she tried to tell herself. But then she thought about the last several months, not knowing if Anakin would never show up to their next holo-call because he was dead on some distant battlefield. Even then they had been able to <em>plan</em>.</p>
<p>“Will we ever see each other again?” she pleaded.</p>
<p>“I’ll find you,” he promised.</p>
<p>“How?”</p>
<p>“I’ll never stop looking until I do,” he swore fiercely, herding her towards the hole he had cut in the wall.</p>
<p>“<em>Anakin—</em>"</p>
<p>Anakin gently used to force to lift the section of wall out of the way and quickly poked his head outside.</p>
<p>“Go.”</p>
<p>With Luke and Leia in her arms and pressed between their parents’ bodies, Padmé kissed Anakin briefly, tasting the salt of their tears, and fled.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>In the emerging tradition of this story being inspired by random scenes from disparate pieces of media, I watched the scene in The Sound of Music where the Von Trapp family is escaping the Nazis in the Abbey and Captain Von Trapp confronts Rolf to let Maria and the children get away, and I said: "that sounds like an angsty inciting incident for a Star Wars AU." </p>
<p>Now here we are.</p>
<p>Rolf is a brainwashed Hitler youth, which is sadly pretty analogous to the clones...</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chase</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I've had a pretty busy weekend, sorry I didn't get this up earlier. To make matters worse, every year I forget how easy it is to get sucked into March Madness...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Padmé had barely disappeared when Anakin ignited his lightsaber, gathered the Force, and shoved hard at the door, flinging it off its hinges and outward.</p>
<p>He charged out after it, using the Force to boost his leap over the fallen piece of metal and the clones it had knocked over (<em>his</em> <em>men</em>— <em>he was hurting his own men</em>). His lightsaber flitted out to deflect the blaster bolts coming at him. He realized after he had deflected several that they were stun bolts.</p>
<p>That made things significantly easier, in some ways. Throughout the war, Anakin had felt enough grief at the deaths of so many of his men—and that had been when it was only his orders getting them killed, not bolts he sent towards them himself.</p>
<p>Anakin had managed to jump past most of the clones but hadn’t managed to completely clear their ranks, so he landed among them. He shoved out with the Force, knocking them to the ground in lieu of cutting through them with his saber, as he would have done with a battle droid.</p>
<p>He ran, throwing a suggestion with the Force behind him that would hopefully get them all to follow. Sure enough, moments later he heard who he thought was probably Appo yelling into a comm channel for all troopers to pursue him. Normally he would have been able to tell who it was easily, but the clones felt completely off in the Force, a disturbing sameness to them that replaced the diversity of minds he was used to.</p>
<p>Since they weren’t shooting to kill, Anakin didn’t feel too bad leading his pursuers onto a crowded street. Still deflecting bolts, he pushed past a Rodian carrying shopping bags, careful not to hurt them. He bumped into a flashily dressed human man with long robes before deciding that the street was too crowded for him to use his lightsaber safely. Luckily, after about a block of navigating the crowd, he spotted a row of balconies he could use a story above and flung himself upwards. Anakin hit the railing running, trusting the Force to keep his balance as he leapt from balcony to balcony, still frantically deflecting bolts behind him.</p>
<p>The time he’d spent pushing through the crowd and then escaping upwards had allowed most of the clones to catch up with him, and the volume of shots whizzing past him grew. The balconies ended ahead, and Anakin had to launch himself across the alleyway to a row of shop awnings. He twisted in the air, feeling shots singe past the tips of his hair and the sleeves of his tunic, but he managed to make it unscathed. Anakin had been hunted before, but never by clones, who were much better shots than droids—he was going to run out of ways to dodge eventually.</p>
<p>Before Anakin could launch himself upwards another story, to run along the window ledges of the building ahead of him, a stun bolt clipped his shoulder. The glancing blow wasn’t enough to knock him out, but it broke his concentration and his muscles locked up for a moment, which was all it took to send him careening down to the street below, his weapon falling from his grip. He managed to roll through his landing, but he had barely re-established his feet under him and before he was tackled from behind.</p>
<p>The wind was knocked out of Anakin’s lungs as he hit the pavement hard. As the reverberation of the impact faded from his body, the clatter of clone armor on all sides let him know he was surrounded. Anakin could only hope he had bought Padmé and the babies enough time and drawn the clones far enough away.</p>
<p>He didn’t struggle, wanting to avoid being stunned point blank. The edges of the armor of the clone who had tackled him dug unto his shoulder. He could feel the muzzle of the man’s blaster pressing into his lower back. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rex stoop to pick up his lightsaber from where it had been dashed out of his hand. He struggled to catch his breath.</p>
<p>“Don’t try to run, Jedi,” he heard a clone’s voice say, the word <em>Jedi</em> sounding like some kind of slur, “you won’t get very far, and it won’t be pretty.”</p>
<p>Anakin unfortunately agreed with that assessment. These men knew him too well, and he was severely outnumbered.</p>
<p>A couple of clones approached and helped the one who had tackled him sloppily haul him to his feet. Anakin staggered, slightly dizzy coming off an adrenaline rush, his chest heaving, but the three men tightly griped his arms.</p>
<p>Rex came up to them, pulling his own helmet off. He met Anakin’s eyes, and Anakin searched them, finding his captain’s familiar presence in Rex’s gaze and in the Force. There was something different about Rex; all the other clones he could sense felt muted and twisted in addition to their unnerving uniformity. There was a small bandage on the side of Rex’s head.</p>
<p>So, was the rest of the 501<sup>st</sup> back on Coruscant already? Last he had heard, shortly before Windu had left to confront Palpatine, they and Ahsoka had captured Maul on Mandalore. That had been almost half a day ago. Anakin briefly panicked as his line of thought brought him to Ahsoka. The first possibility he considered, that Maul had escaped and killed her, he forced down by reasoning that Rex would probably <em>not</em> be here and instead dealing with the resulting chaos. The remaining options weren’t much better: she could have been attacked by her clones like the rest of the Jedi, or she could have escaped (which would have been best, but still didn’t mean she was safe).</p>
<p>Rex pulled a pair of Force-dampening handcuffs from his belt and Anakin’s brow furrowed even more deeply. The other clones twisted his arms behind him. Anakin couldn’t help but shudder as the cuffs were placed on him, hating the sensation of being cut off from the Force, like being plunged into a thick cloud of fog.</p>
<p>“Step back boys, I got ‘im” Rex said gruffly. They didn’t hesitate to obey him.</p>
<p>“They’re all being controlled by those chips that Fives found,” Rex murmured from behind him, so only Anakin could hear. Anakin didn’t dare reply out loud. There were dozens of clones facing him who would undoubtedly see his mouth move.</p>
<p><em>Not you?</em> Anakin signed instead, using the hand signals they had developed over the course of the war. Thank goodness, at least, for Rex and Cody’s dedication to making it so comprehensive. Luckily, the cuffs left his wrists with enough range of movement. He stood close enough to Rex that hopefully Rex could tell what he was doing without anyone else catching on.</p>
<p>Rex must have understood because he muttered again,</p>
<p>“Commander Tano helped me remove mine.”</p>
<p>Did that mean Ahsoka <em>was</em> alive? Rex didn’t leave him to wonder for long.</p>
<p>“We came back here looking for you, General. She went to the Temple.”</p>
<p>Anakin stiffened. That was <em>worse </em>than if Ahsoka had escaped and stayed somewhere far away from here. The place was likely crawling with mind-controlled clones, not to mention it had still been on fire last time he checked. Anakin desperately swallowed back panic, and signaled,</p>
<p><em>Get her out</em>.</p>
<p>Pitching his voice much louder, Rex ordered to the rest of the clones,</p>
<p>“Appo, call in the gunship, and let’s get him to detention so the Chancellor can deal with him.”</p>
<p>Again, to Anakin, he muttered,</p>
<p>“I’ll tell her. I… couldn’t stop them coming after you. What can I do?”</p>
<p>Anakin stilled. He worried about Padmé, having no idea if Artoo had been able to get to her. If she had to go on foot, her state of undress would undoubtedly draw suspicion in that part of the city, even if no one recognized her as Senator Amidala. He wanted to send Rex to help her, but if he could no longer trust his second-in-command, doing so would put his wife and newborn children in an untold amount of danger. Yes, Ahsoka had been with him, and Anakin almost always trusted her judgement, but…he thought he could be forgiven for being a little paranoid at the moment. He had once thought that his trust in Palpatine could never be shaken, yet now he was being forcibly captured and brought to the man in chains.</p>
<p>Though he had tried to read Rex’s general presence in the Force moments earlier, with the handcuffs on, Anakin could not gauge the truthfulness of the responses he was giving now. Anakin’s mind raced, trying to come up with a question he could ask that would give him the answer he needed.  The clones he could see still had their blasters trained on him, even with Rex holding him.</p>
<p><em>Trust? </em>He tried, hoping Rex would come up with something suitable on his own.</p>
<p>Anakin’s breath caught as he felt Rex unlock the binders with subtle movements.</p>
<p>“I want to help you, General. Please believe me.” Rex said from the corner of his mouth. The Force blazed with his sincerity. Rex would never have given any other prisoner that kind of opportunity to take out brothers by making an escape attempt. Anakin gave the slightest of nods, and Rex quietly snapped the binders in place again. Being cut off from the Force again so quickly after he had gotten it back made his head spin.</p>
<p><em>Senator. Heading West. Retreat. </em>Anakin signed<em>. </em>He paused and then relayed to Rex the address of Dex’s diner in CoCo Town. It ate at him, but he would have to trust Rex, Padmé, Ahsoka, and Artoo to figure out the rest.</p>
<p>“Don’t worry, I’ll get them both out of here,” Rex promised.</p>
<p>Anakin chuffed a laugh, the idea of him not worrying about Padmé, when every fiber of his consciousness practically roared with his fear for her, was patently ridiculous. The sound he made got drowned out by the familiar roar of a gunship settling behind the circle of his men surrounding him. The crowd Anakin had been struggling through in the street had cleared out thoroughly, but the alleyway was so narrow that the pilot had to do some impressive maneuvering to fit the ship between the buildings.</p>
<p>A few clones broke from their line, including Appo, and started towards Rex and Anakin. Appo firmly gripped Anakin’s upper arm and jerked him away from Rex, towards the waiting ship. The clones with him fell in around them.</p>
<p>He wished he had given Rex a little more to go on, but his method of communication had just been disrupted. He <em>had</em> to try.</p>
<p>Anakin had been convinced for a long time that other people just weren’t like him—they didn’t get it, how he needed the people he loved like he needed air to breathe—but right now, he needed to make Rex understand. He couldn’t be rescued—not really, not in any way that <em>mattered</em>—if Padmé wasn’t safe. If Luke and Leia weren’t. As he was herded towards the waiting gunship, Anakin pitched his voice to carry.</p>
<p>“I wish you all would <em>leave me</em> alone,” he started, awkwardly trying to work in the necessary double meaning into his pontificating. He hoped the rest of his men wouldn’t notice how much he sounded like a crazed lunatic. Among the helmeted clones swarming him, Anakin searched for Rex’s face.</p>
<p>“Focus on what’s really important: The <em>Republic</em>! I thought it meant something to you!”</p>
<p>Rex had followed the group of clones heading to the gunship, but now stood outside it as Anakin was unceremoniously shoved in, and Anakin managed to catch Rex’s eyes as he finished,</p>
<p>“It means everything to me.”</p>
<hr/>
<p>Rex told the rest of his men that he was going to coordinate with the Coruscant Guard forces and headed back towards 500 Republica.</p>
<p>Everything had happened so fast, giving Rex scarcely a moment to breathe since the order had come through. He’d wanted to stay behind with the wreckage of the ship to give his brothers some kind of dignity in death. He could tell Ahsoka had wanted to as well, but then he had seen the look in her eyes when she’d first climbed out of the Y-wing. A paradoxical mixture of hope and dread. He hadn’t forgotten what she’d said right before the shooting started, so she’d barely even had to say the General’s name before he was agreeing.</p>
<p>Rex’s loyalty to the still-living would always outweigh his loyalty to the dead. A necessity of war.</p>
<p>And it wasn’t just General Skywalker: the rest of the 501<sup>st</sup> was on Coruscant too, and maybe Rex could do for them what Ahsoka had done for him.</p>
<p>But he would go back to that moon, one day. He would.</p>
<p>However, continuing the day’s theme of more urgent problems interrupting, Rex now had a new mission. The senator. The 501st had orders to go after her too, but the order to capture General Skywalker <em>alive</em> had not extended to the man’s wife.</p>
<p>Rex reached the apartment building and passed through the mangled doorway to the stairwell. His gaze immediately landed on the hole cut in the opposite wall, and it was easy for him to piece together where the Senator had gone. He weighed his options: go after her right away and leave the troopers coming down the stairs to figure out the same thing he had, or wait for them to get here and offer a lie that would throw them off track. Rex knew he was a terrible liar, and any deception could ruin his chances at being able to help his brothers later, but the decision was made for him when clones in maroon-painted armor came down the last flight of stairs and spotted him.</p>
<p>“Commander Fox,” Rex greeted.</p>
<p>“Commander,” Fox answered, “did you manage to apprehend the targets?”</p>
<p>
  <em>Well, here goes nothing.</em>
</p>
<p>“They went out this way at first,” Rex said, gesturing at the wall, “Tried to loop around behind us, but we were ready for them. We’ve captured Skywalker, but the senator was still heading East last time we spotted her,”</p>
<p>
  <em>Take the bait, Fox.</em>
</p>
<p>Fox nodded and motioned to his men.</p>
<p>“Head East, troopers. Fan out in a standard search pattern from this location until the traitor is found,” Fox ordered.</p>
<p>“I’ll stay back,” Rex said, “she might come back here if she thinks we’ve all left.”</p>
<p>“By yourself?” Fox asked.</p>
<p>Rex really wasn’t in the mood to stun any more of his brothers today.</p>
<p>“I’ll call in some of my men and set up a patrol here,” he lied again.</p>
<p>Thankfully, Fox accepted this and led his whole squad through the empty doorway. Rex prayed they wouldn’t question why the door had clearly been blown <em>outward </em>into the street. Evidently, the chips didn’t mess with brothers trusting brothers at their word, and Rex watched them disappear in the opposite direction of where their target had actually gone.</p>
<p>As soon as they were out of sight, Rex ducked through the hole in the wall and typed Ahsoka’s frequency into his comm.</p>
<p>“Commander, come in.”</p>
<p>“Rex, what’s going on?” Ahsoka’s frantic voice replied after a moment.</p>
<p>“Well, we found the General.”</p>
<p>“We?” Ahsoka asked, and he was sure it was dread in her voice.</p>
<p>“Practically as soon as I got to Appo and the boys, we got a location and orders to capture him. I couldn’t do anything but go with them.”</p>
<p>“If he wasn’t at the Temple, where was he?” she asked.</p>
<p>“Senator Amidala’s apartment building.”</p>
<p>“<em>Kriff</em>, of course,” Ahsoka realized, “wait—capture?”</p>
<p>“They were special orders from the Chancellor. Not order 66,” he explained.</p>
<p>Ahsoka hesitated.</p>
<p>“Since Anakin’s not talking to me himself right now…”</p>
<p>Best to put it bluntly.</p>
<p>“They sent the entire rest of the 501<sup>st</sup> <em>and</em> the Coruscant Guard. We captured him.”</p>
<p> “Well, where are you taking him now?” she demanded.</p>
<p>“Ah—well—” Rex knew this was one of Skywalker’s orders she would want to disobey, “Senator Amidala was with him, but she got away. He told me—us—to go after her.”</p>
<p>“<em>Master—</em>” Ahsoka hissed frustratedly to herself.</p>
<p>“We had orders to kill her,” Rex said. He heard Ahsoka’s sharp intake of breath.</p>
<p>A few campaigns after Rex had been… let in on Skywalker’s secret affair, Skywalker had told Rex that sometimes it seemed like Padmé Amidala was the only thing keeping him sane anymore. It had been a rare moment of vulnerability from his General—<em>frightening</em> if he let himself think about it too hard—and Rex had seen too much not to believe it. He was sure Ahsoka suspected how much the senator and jedi meant to each other—any trooper in the 501<sup>st</sup> did once he had served with the legion long enough. Rex was well used to Skywalker’s particularly potent brand of ride-or-die loyalty: putting one or two people above all else, despite long odds. It had saved his own skin more than once.</p>
<p>“I know where she was headed. Sending you the coordinates,” he offered.</p>
<p>“Okay,” Ahsoka paused again, and when she spoke her voice wobbled a little, “there’s not much more I can do here anyways.”</p>
<p>Rex was selfishly glad he hadn’t gone to the Jedi Temple with her.</p>
<p><em>So much death</em>, she had murmured when they’d first landed on Coruscant and could see the building in the distance.</p>
<p>At least Skywalker’s half of the 501<sup>st</sup> hadn’t been sent to the Temple—apparently the Chancellor had held them in reserve to for dealing with their general. If Rex had his way, the Chancellor wouldn’t even succeed in that, not if he could help the general’s wife and padawan get away from this mess.</p>
<p>“Meet you there, kid.”</p>
<hr/>
<p>Rex wasn’t sure what he had expected to find at the address General Skywalker had given him: maybe a non-descript warehouse or hangar or tenement building. Not a diner.</p>
<p>The small neon sign in one of the windows proclaimed that the place was called <em>Dex’s</em>, and Rex felt like maybe he’d heard the name before but couldn’t place it. Even though it was getting late, the diner was still open. There were some customers scattered at the tables including a somewhat boisterous group of Weequays in the corner booth. A few glanced at him, wary, but then turned back to their meals. If he’d been with a few of his brothers, they might have been less curious, but Rex was alone.</p>
<p>Rex held his bucket nervously under his arm and paused just inside the doorway. He discretely scanned the customers’ faces. No senator. Maybe she wasn’t here yet and he’d passed her unknowingly on the way. Rex considered leaving and retracing his steps but then thought better of it. Ahsoka was supposed to meet him here and Jedi had always had a knack for finding people who didn’t want to be found. He should wait for her.</p>
<p>A droid drifted over to him and told him to sit where he liked.</p>
<p>He did, choosing a seat that put his back to the wall and gave him a good view of the exit and dimly lit street outside the windows. Rex grabbed a menu off the table to look busy, but his attention was on the street. It wasn’t long before the droid came over to him to take his order.</p>
<p>“I’m actually waiting on someone.” Rex told the droid, “Wife of a friend.”</p>
<p>The droid didn’t reply for a moment, and Rex wondered if it somehow knew something. But then it just told him to flag it down when he was ready. As the droid moved away, his commlink beeped from inside his helmet and he shoved it on, glad that it meant no one else in the diner would be able to hear him talking.</p>
<p>“Are you here yet, Rex?” Ahsoka asked without preamble, “I’m outside.”</p>
<p>Rex searched the street again until he could barely make out what he thought was Ahsoka’s cloaked figure sulking in a shadowed corner.</p>
<p>“I see you, Commander” Rex replied, “But she’s not here.”</p>
<p>“Dex knows me,” Ahsoka informed him after a beat. “Anakin, Obi Wan, and I used to come here sometimes. I’ll come in and we can ask him if he’s seen anything.”</p>
<p>So that’s where he’d heard of this place before. He hoped the fact that it was frequented by Jedi wasn’t very common knowledge, or they might get into some trouble. Rex removed his helmet again, feeling too out of place in a random restaurant while wearing full armor.</p>
<p>Ahsoka entered without lowering her hood and waited for the droid to greet her. She said something to it that Rex couldn’t hear from where he was sitting and the droid made its way to the kitchens, business-like—if you could call a droid that. Ahsoka then casually made her way over to Rex’s table and slid in next to him. She didn’t say anything.</p>
<p>Were it not for his training, Rex would have drummed his fingers on the table or bounced his knee. Instead he held his body taught, ready to spring out of his seat at a moment’s notice. The waiting was both irritating and nerve-wracking. Logically, probably nothing would happen to them in this diner, but with the way his life had been going lately, well… And, any place that his trio of Jedi frequented seemed likely to have a few surprises.</p>
<p>A heavyset Besalisk lumbered out into the dining area, sending the doors to what Rex assumed was the kitchen swinging behind him. He went straight for their table, and Rex tensed even more.</p>
<p>“Somebody here order the omelet special?” he asked gruffly.</p>
<p>Ahsoka raised her head so the man could see her face. He stared for a minute before exclaiming,</p>
<p>“Ah, little Tano!”</p>
<p>He saw Ahsoka twitch. The man wasn’t exactly whispering.</p>
<p>“Haven’t seen you around here in a while,” the Besalisk remarked.</p>
<p>“Dex,” Ahsoka said seriously, “We’re looking for someone. A senator. You wouldn’t happen to have seen her recently?”</p>
<p>Rex examined Dex’s response carefully. Dex glanced back towards the kitchen. Then he gave Rex a suspicious look. Fighting the urge to look elsewhere, Rex simply met the large man’s eyes. He and his brothers had quickly found that some citizens of the Republic looked down on clones as lesser beings. The response of standing firm in the face of that prejudice had become second nature to Rex.</p>
<p><em>We’ve sacrificed more than most could ever imagine,</em> Rex thought.</p>
<p>Before his thoughts could poke anymore at that wound—could drive the broken armor deeper into the wreckage on that desolate moon, parsecs away—Dex was replying,</p>
<p>“I might have. What’s it to you?”</p>
<p>He was pointedly still looking at Rex when he said it.</p>
<p>The only thing that stopped Rex from bristling at the man’s attitude was the sick thought that he was <em>right</em> to not trust any clone. After what they had all been made to do—</p>
<p>“The three of us want to go on a vacation. Someplace quiet,” Ahsoka said, “My <em>friend</em> here has been <em>helping </em>us.”</p>
<p>Dex’s eyes snapped back to Ahsoka and he nodded thoughtfully, the flabby skin underneath his chin jiggling as he did so. Rex thought he was going to give them some sort of information next: maybe the Senator had already been here and left. Instead, he started moving back the way he had come.</p>
<p>“I’ll check in the back.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Welcome to the party, Rex and Ahsoka! This story technically has two canon divergence points: one is the twins and the other is Rex and Ahsoka booking it back to Coruscant right after escaping the crash instead of staying to bury the dead. Rex is understandably angsty about this, but I think he is so loyal to Anakin that he would put him (and then by extension Padme) first anyways.</p>
<p>A hint for next chapter's happenings: it's yet another of my (several) takes on an event that we never got to see in canon media</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. First Meetings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“He knows something is up,” Ahsoka told Rex when Dex was out of earshot.</p><p>“He was never that…cold about clones before,” she explained. And he hadn’t been, as she remembered. When Obi Wan had asked him for intelligence on one thing or another, Dex had given it freely, replying <em>gotta keep our boys in white ahead of the curve </em>or something else to that effect. His assistance had made the difference in more than one of their missions.</p><p>Now, Ahsoka was sure he knew something about Padmé, but he wasn’t coming out and saying it. Because of Rex.</p><p>“Word about the order must be spreading,” Rex guessed grimly.</p><p>Ahsoka’s eyes swept nervously over the other patrons in the diner. She didn’t think the kind of people who frequented Dex’s were principled enough to take action one way or another about the Jedi being labeled traitors. Then again, they <em>were</em> the type to spy for the highest bidder.</p><p>“I feel too exposed here,” she muttered, not looking at Rex.</p><p>“If he takes too long to come back, I say leave,” he replied.</p><p>They waited several minutes longer, not speaking to each other and not being disturbed by either the waitress droid or any of the other customers. Ahsoka watched the street through the window. Then, Dex returned.</p><p>“Wasn’t sure if I should trust someone coming looking for her, but she does. Come on back.”</p><p>Ahsoka tried to slide out of the booth nonchalantly but quickly and looked back at Rex meaningfully as they followed Dex to the kitchen doors. So Padmé <em>was</em> here.</p><p>As they entered the diner’s kitchen, the scent of fry oil became even stronger and Ahsoka felt a wave of heat. It was a bit disorderly and slightly grimy, certainly nothing like a GAR mess hall, but Ahsoka had seen worse. Dex gestured down a small hallway at the other end of the kitchen, with a door set into the side that probably led to a supply closet. Ahsoka dodged a cook droid as she headed for it, the chaos of the kitchen not stopping for its unexpected visitors, and she could feel Rex doing the same behind her.</p><p>On the other side of the door stood Padmé Amidala, with a blaster in her hands, though she hadn’t gone so far as to point it at them as the door opened. She was wearing a delicate, flowing nightdress that looked distinctly out of place with the battered crates that littered the small room. Her curly hair was loose over her shoulders and slightly wild and she looked nervous. In fact, Ahsoka had never seen the Senator like this: unexpectedly unkempt in comparison to the elaborate gowns and hairpieces she normally favored. Even when she had caught the Blue Shadow Virus, Ahsoka thought Padmé had still managed to look put-together, but now she looked stressed.</p><p>Ahsoka noticed how the fabric of her dress pulled oddly at her stomach, but then Padmé was hugging her, saying,</p><p>“I’m so glad you’re here, Ahsoka. We weren’t sure—"</p><p>Ahsoka relaxed in her embrace. It had been so long since someone who cared about her had touched her like this, and Ahsoka felt the weight of the past days and months come crashing down on her. In fact, the last person who had hugged her like this probably <em>had</em> been Padmé. Ahsoka closed her eyes for a second and pulled the woman closer.</p><p>Strange—</p><p>Ahsoka pulled back and looked at Padmé’s swollen midsection. If she remembered her biology classes right, in human women that meant—</p><p>Ahsoka’s mind skirted around comprehension, but Padmé had noticed her surprise. Before Ahsoka could decide whether it would be impolite to try to ask, Padmé squeezed Ahsoka’s hand and said gently,</p><p>“There’s some people you should meet.”</p><p>And then Padmé was turning to some of the small, open crates and lifting a bundle of blankets out of it. A little sleeping baby face was poking out.</p><p>Ahsoka stared at it in awe, understanding dawning on her, as Padmé approached. And then, there was a tiny human youngling right in front of her, its delicate nose scrunched up as if it was annoyed at being disturbed.</p><p>“This is Luke Skywalker,” Padmé said.</p><p>And, of course Padmé’s baby would be Anakin’s son. The name and the fact of that connection was all she could think of for a few moments. She’d long since guessed that Anakin and Padmé were closer than the code should have allowed, of course she had, but she hadn’t thought—<em>this </em>close. So close they had a <em>child</em> together. It was something she’d never really considered. Except for—no. She’d given up any sort of quasi-familial claim she could have had on Anakin, she told herself. She’d told herself it wasn’t meant to be, and yet—now—</p><p>Ahsoka looked back up at Padmé, lost for words.</p><p>“Would you like to hold him?” Padmé asked.</p><p>Ahsoka’s first thought was that she shouldn’t. She was a soldier, trained to destroy even if she hadn’t been meant to, and Luke was so tiny. But then she realized she could feel him in the Force: soft and warm and bright. She was looking at possibly one of the few good things left in the galaxy, and Ahsoka wanted desperately to hold onto that.</p><p>And Luke <em>was </em>good. His existence meant Anakin had broken the code, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to mind, even before she left the order.  It had always felt sort of…right. And now, approval rang clear and pure through the Force.</p><p>Ahsoka nodded shyly and reached for the baby. Padmé was grinning as she maneuvered her son into Ahsoka’s arms, keeping her hand under his head and nudging Ahsoka’s elbows into the right position as Luke settled into her arms. Ahsoka had held a few babies in the creche before, and very occasionally on a mission, but this was different. None had been nearly this small, for one, and none of them had been Skywalkers. He was lighter than she thought he would be.</p><p>Padmé had stepped away, and when Ahsoka looked back at her she had <em>another </em>baby in her arms. Ahsoka gaped at the pair of them. <em>What?</em></p><p>“And this is Leia Skywalker.”</p><p>“Twins?” Ahsoka asked incredulous, peering at the girl’s peaceful face, “I didn’t know humans…”</p><p>Padmé was still grinning at Ahsoka’s reaction.</p><p>“It’s not common, but it does happen. And neither Anakin nor I could ever do anything by halves,” she joked.</p><p>Ahsoka still wasn’t sure what to think or do or say.</p><p>
  <em>Babies. Twins. Luke. Luke and Leia. Skywalker babies. Luke and Leia Skywalker.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Holy shavit.</em>
</p><p>“Rex, could you close the door?” Padmé asked softly, and Ahsoka remembered that he was here too. She twisted her neck to look over her shoulder but didn’t turn, reluctant to move too much with something so precious in her care.</p><p>Rex had startled at Padmé’s words and cleared his throat awkwardly.</p><p>“Uh, sure, ma’am—Senator,” he stammered and reached his hand behind him without looking, eventually finding the handle and pulling the door shut. His eyes darted back and forth between the baby in Ahsoka’s arms and the one in Padmé’s.</p><p>When Ahsoka looked back at Padmé, the new mother’s face had turned steely. She took a bracing breath and settled herself onto one of the larger closed crates.</p><p>“Where’s Anakin?”</p><hr/><p>Rex told her where Anakin was.</p><p>Padmé wasn’t surprised—Anakin himself had clearly seen capture as a likely outcome—but she was afraid. Well, every time Anakin left her sight, she was a little afraid—he had a tendency to find trouble wherever he went. But she was so<em> terrified </em>now.</p><p>Their argument while descending the stairwell about who would leave themselves to Palpatine’s tender mercies had been one she was destined to lose one way or another. She had convinced herself of this as she had waited, miserable and unsure, in the dim, dingy room. Anakin had already made up his mind to go confront the Chancellor. Padmé had learned there was precious little that could stop him once that happened—they were alike in that way. Or maybe it wasn’t Anakin’s stubbornness that had been the deciding factor, but destiny itself. Maybe those things were one and the same.</p><p>Anakin was possibly fulfilling his destiny at this very moment and here they all were, in a supply closet. What would fate do to Anakin Skywalker once it was done with him? Did it care that he had a wife and children waiting for him?</p><p>After giving into her worry for a long moment, she made a decision. The universe would only break Anakin Skywalker if Padmé Amidala let it. And she wasn’t going to.</p><p>Padmé had always found it easier to think through her problems aloud, sometimes to Anakin’s chagrin and great boredom. What she wouldn’t give to have Sabé here right now. But Padmé had sent her away once Anakin had arrived at her apartment, wanting the moment to be private between husband and wife. What had happened to Typho and the rest of her security team, who had been standing guard outside her apartment, she didn’t want to know. Nothing good.</p><p>“So they’re taking him to the Chancellor,” Padmé summarized grimly, “I don’t know whether Palpatine will try to kill him or—"</p><p>“Why would the Chancellor try to kill him?” Ahsoka broke in, incredulous, “wait—is it because the council made Anakin spy on him?”</p><p>Anakin had been spying on Palpatine? Well, that actually explained a lot about Anakin’s stormy mood the past few days, and his outburst when she had asked him to intercede about the Chancellor’s emergency powers.</p><p>His <em>emergency powers</em>. Ancestors.</p><p>An evil Sith lord was in possession of highly unconstitutional levels of power over the entire Republic government. The entire army, thousands of systems, trillions of beings, all under his thumb. And Padmé had put him there.</p><p>“No, Ahsoka. It’s much worse than that,” Padmé said slowly. “The Chancellor is a Sith Lord.”</p><p>“What? But—” Ahsoka spluttered. The girl’s brows furrowed and she directed her gaze towards the floor, unseen wheels turning in her head, then jerked when her eyes fell on Luke who was still in her arms.</p><p>“Really?” she asked.</p><p>“Anakin seemed pretty damn sure about it, and for what it’s worth I think he’s right,” Padmé said.</p><p>“Darth Sidious,” Rex said from his position by the door, and Padmé had almost forgotten he was there.</p><p>“I—yes. That’s what Anakin called him,” she replied, surprised.</p><p>“Rex, how do <em>you</em> know who Darth Sidious is?” Ahsoka asked.</p><p>“He was the one who gave the order,” the soldier said quietly, almost guiltily. Padmé didn’t think she’d ever heard a clone talk in that tone of voice. Ahsoka opened her mouth, looking betrayed at Rex for omitting such a crucial piece of information, but Padmé cut her off.</p><p>“What order?”</p><p>“Order 66,” the clone captain said, “All clones must terminate the Jedi traitors.”</p><p>Padmé stared at him. Oh, ancestors. It all made too much sense—except—</p><p>“Traitors? I can see why Palpatine would want to label them that way, but the rest of your men would just believe it?”</p><p>Rex visibly bristled at her accusation, but Padmé was too suddenly furious to care. She knew better than most just how much the Jedi had sacrificed to defend the Republic—had overheard Bail and Yoda and Obi Wan discussing their worry about the lengths the Council was taking to achieve results, had seen how the stress of constant battles had changed her husband despite his attempts to hide it, had read over every casualty report and the statistics of the order’s dwindling ranks. She had thought one of the few groups who knew better than she of the Jedi’s total commitment to the Republic was the clones: the men who fought side by side, day after day, with them.</p><p>If she had been thinking straight, she would have thought to question it earlier, as they fled her apartment building. Padmé had even initially assumed that the distant carnage at the Temple had been the doing of battle droids that had somehow managed to infiltrate Coruscant, or never left after the battle. The threat of such a thing had hung over the heads of nervous senators ever since the war began. But this was much, much worse.</p><p>“It wasn’t them—they’re not themselves,” Ahsoka insisted. Padmé turned her fuming gaze to the Padawan. What was that supposed to mean? Even though Ahsoka was no longer technically a Jedi, Padmé had no idea how the girl could possibly justify defending what the clones had done to her former people. To her and Anakin.</p><p>Ahsoka’s eyes widened at Padmé’s sudden scrutiny but she didn’t back down.</p><p>“The Kaminoans put control chips in their heads when they were very young—all of them. They <em>made </em>them do this,” she insisted, “they had no choice.”</p><p>Before Padmé could fully absorb that, Rex continued nervously,</p><p>“Commando Tano managed to get mine out,” he assured her, pointing to a bandage on his shaved head.</p><p>Padmé thought of the faint scar just beneath Anakin’s left collarbone, where his slave chip had been, and Shmi Skywalker’s explanation so many years ago, and little Anakin’s cheerful, <em>they blow you up! </em></p><p>She wasn’t sure what was worse: an explosive buried in your own body, or mind control that forced you to turn on your friends. Mind control that the <em>Senate</em> had voted to put there—or, had they even known?</p><p><em>It wasn’t me</em>, Padmé thought desperately, <em>I voted against it</em>. She tried to block out the voice that insisted, <em>you didn’t try hard enough to stop it</em>.</p><p>She couldn’t—she needed—</p><p>“But you said they <em>captured</em> Anakin.”</p><p>“Special orders,” Rex explained succinctly.</p><p>“From the Chancellor,” Padmé finished for him.</p><p>“Why?” Ahsoka asked.</p><p>“Palpatine wants Anakin to join him.”</p><p>“You mean, join the dark side.” Ahsoka stated shakily, as if she had… expected this?</p><p>Padmé studied her, rather than dwell too deeply on her own doubts. The togruta had always come across as unerringly confident in her master’s goodness and abilities. The girl Ahsoka had been, the one Padmé had known, would probably have rejected the possibility of her master joining forces with a Sith Lord out of hand. But it had been a long time, Padmé thought ruefully, since she had seen Ahsoka—she was sure a lot had happened to the teenager in the past several months. Padmé resolved to ask her about it later; she’d worried for Ahsoka often, and she knew Anakin did at least twice as much.</p><p>“Yes.  Anakin wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit,” Padmé said with false levity. An understatement, but, she thought, also a gross simplification. The war had tested Anakin—maybe even broken him in some ways—and Padmé had been especially concerned about him recently, but her husband was a <em>good man</em>. She had to believe Ani would do the right thing.</p><p>“Maul was right,” Ahsoka said, still looking stunned and sick and not much reassured.</p><p>Padmé probably wasn’t supposed to know that Darth Maul, the Sith Lord that had appeared on Naboo during the Trade Federation blockade, was still alive, but Anakin had told her. He had been worried for Obi Wan. Last she had heard, the Zabrak warrior had killed Duchess Satine on Mandalore. Anakin had also told her about Ahsoka’s mission on Mandalore. Padmé noted for the first time, distantly, that the pattern’s on Ahsoka’s garments and headband were distinctly Mandalorian.</p><p>“Right about what?” Padmé asked. Rex shifted uncomfortably in his position leaning against the wall.</p><p>“Apparently Maul had had visions about ‘his master’s plan’ and they involved Anakin… <em>destroying</em> the Force.” Ahsoka said carefully.</p><p>Padmé stilled. Visions? But, Anakin’s own visions hadn’t come true, she thought desperately. Maybe—</p><p>“He said that Anakin had been <em>groomed</em> for a long time for his role,” Ahsoka plowed on, though each word seemed to be a struggle.</p><p>Groomed. Ancestors.</p><p>Palpatine and Anakin had been friends for a long time—since Anakin entered the order, he had told her. The way Anakin talked about the man sometimes made Padmé dearly guilty that she had not made a similar effort to befriend Anakin much earlier. She knew Anakin had found it difficult to fit in with the Jedi, and she tried not to think too much about how <em>lonely </em>he must have been at times.</p><p>He had been a sweet, lonely little boy, and the Jedi <em>and</em> Sith had <em>used</em> <em>him</em>. Padmé felt her face crumple as her heart welled with deep sadness. She let herself wallow in it for a moment before it was replaced with a righteous anger. If someone had tried to do something like that to <em>Luke</em>—</p><p>“That—that—<em>cheeskar nok sleemo.”</em> Padmé cursed. She wasn’t exactly proud of it, but she had picked up some Huttese from Anakin: mostly insults. She had to admit, it was satisfying to mutter them under her breath when Halle Burtoni or some other truculent senator was getting on her nerves. At this point, Basic couldn’t adequately convey how she felt about Palpatine’s betrayals. And, the vulgarity had the added effect of pushing down the rising sting of the reveal of yet another layer of the Supreme Chancellor’s betrayal of everything she stood for. It was, she thought absurdly, like she was peeling back the layers of a particularly pungent onion, except she couldn’t stop, no matter how much her eyes burned.</p><p>Ahsoka shifted Luke slightly in her arms, looking a little taken aback at Padmé’s crass language. It was not at all fitting for a Galactic Senator, but Padmé didn’t much feel like one right now.</p><p>“We need to go after him,” Ahsoka said with conviction. Padmé was sure if she meant Anakin or the Chancellor. Maybe it didn’t matter: they were in the same place, after all.</p><p>Padmé was almost ready to agree with Ahsoka whole-heartedly, but then Leia shifted the tiniest bit in her arms, burrowing closer to her mother in her sleep. Padmé suddenly felt grounded again—her daughter, an anchor in a storm.</p><p>“We can’t.”</p><p>“Why not?” Ahsoka accused.</p><p>“If it weren’t for Luke and Leia, Anakin and I would be plotting how to catch Sidious off-guard and take him down right now. Or we would have already done it! The only reason Anakin let himself get captured was to buy me time to get the twins far, far away from Sidious—we can’t just abandon that now and put them in danger.”</p><p>“Well, obviously we can’t bring two babies along to fight a Sith Lord, but we can’t just do nothing.”</p><p>“What, we’ll just leave them with a <em>babysitter</em>—”</p><p>“That’s not what I—”</p><p>“Sidious will be <em>hunting</em> them, Ahsoka!”</p><p>The teenager fell silent at Padmé’s ferocity. They’d never really disagreed with one another before, let alone raised their voices. Padmé felt a flash of regret. She hadn’t meant to hurt Ahsoka, but—</p><p>Luke made a snuffling sound from Ahsoka’s arms, and a glimpse at his little face told Padmé he was about to start crying. Padmé stood quickly, depositing a luckily still-sleeping Leia into one of the crates that was doubling as a bassinet. Ahsoka was looking back and forth between Luke and Padmé, clearly panicked. Padmé was already scooping her son from the girl’s arms.</p><p>“I’m sorry—” she said miserably.</p><p>“It’s okay, Ahsoka,” Padmé said gently, in between shushing and murmuring sweet nothings to her son. He still looked fussy, but luckily he wasn’t being too loud. Padmé wasn’t sure what the rest of Dex’s diner would think if they heard a baby’s cries coming from the kitchen, and she didn’t want to find out.</p><p>“He could feel us, I think,” Ahsoka said, “he could tell that we were upset.”</p><p>This early? Anakin could feel them—he had said as much, holding their children in his arms for the first time—but it was another thing entirely to know that her babies already knew the Force.</p><p>“They’re powerful,” Padmé said, “which is why—”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>“Ahsoka, do you think we’ll need to leave Coruscant? I mean, do you think Palpatine can—” Padmé wasn’t sure how this kind of thing worked, but she knew she needed to learn.</p><p>“Maybe. Now that I know to look, I can definitely feel them. They <em>are</em> strong, really strong, maybe even…and Anakin at least knows how to shield himself.” Ahsoka said.</p><p>Did Ahsoka mean the twins were as strong in the force as Anakin? Because Padmé knew she was Force-blind, but there had been a few times when even <em>she</em> thought she could somehow feel her husband’s power.</p><p>“So there’s a possibility he might be able to sense them, even from here?”</p><p>“If he knew to look,” Ahsoka said.</p><p>“He knew I was pregnant.”</p><p>Ahsoka looked offended at that, for some reason.</p><p>“<em>He</em> knew? Anakin didn’t even tell <em>me</em> you were pregnant!”</p><p>Oh. Suddenly, Padmé had to fight the absurd urge to laugh. Out of everything, Ahsoka had chosen to take issue with being left out.</p><p>“To be fair, <em>Anakin</em> didn’t even know until he crashed General Grievous’ entire flagship onto Coruscant,” Padmé said fondly, “and I don’t think Anakin told him. I’ve been trying to hide it in the Senate with my clothing but, well, they’re twins.”</p><p>They were getting off topic slightly, but at least exasperation with Anakin was familiar ground they could both walk.</p><p>“So the question is,” Rex said from behind them, sobering them, “how do we get out of here as soon as possible without him—or anyone—knowing?”</p><hr/><p><br/>“I have some friends,” Ahsoka said hesitantly. “On level 1313, not terribly far from here.”</p><p>She would have preferred to not get Trace and Rafa mixed up in this. They were good people, though, and they understood how important family was. She thought they would want to help. And, no one knew that Ahsoka knew them. Well, Bo Katan had known, and the incident with the loader droid <em>may </em>have been a bit public—</p><p>“It would be a big risk. Mostly for them, but maybe us too.”</p><p>“Do they have a ship that isn’t in the Republic databases?” Rex asked.</p><p>“Trace built the <em>Silver Angel</em> herself—but—” she winced, “never mind, there was an incident with Republic military lanes and Admiral Yularen…”</p><p>Rex and Padmé both regarded her with expressions of incredulity, and their raised eyebrows made her feel like a youngling again, in trouble with the Creche masters for climbing up on a statue or ledge she shouldn’t have.</p><p>“Like I said: never mind. They would be good people to have on our side, but it’s probably safer for everyone if we just steal a ship off a stranger.” She had intended to go back to Trace and Rafa—to at least check in on them after Maul was dealt with, but now that probably would never happen. She hoped they wouldn’t worry too much about her. She hoped they were still safe.</p><p>“There’s no shortage of ships on Coruscant, we just have to find one that can get us past the fleet.” Rex said.</p><p>“If we look somewhere seedy we have just as good a chance of finding a piece of junk as finding something that would work,” Ahsoka reasoned.</p><p>“But somewhere reputable, and none of the ships will be capable of combat,” Padmé finished.</p><p>“There will be more troops in those areas anyways,” Rex said.</p><p>“Troops in civilian areas?” Padmé asked, looking incredulous.</p><p>“The Chancellor has put the planet under lockdown. We got the orders right before we…”</p><p>“So the underlevels it is,” Ahsoka interrupted, “maybe we’ll get lucky with another <em>Twilight</em>.”</p><p>Rex looked appalled.</p><p>“Lucky?”</p><p>“It got us out of some tough scrapes,” Ahsoka argued.</p><p>“We’ll take what we can get,” Padmé said, “And we’ll have Artoo to help us, at least.”</p><p>“Artoo is with you?”</p><p>“I left him with the speeder around the corner,” Padmé replied.</p><p>“He and I can do some recon on possible ships and then you can come to meet us,” Ahsoka said. This was something she knew how to do. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea for me to steal the ship and then come pick you up. If we don’t get away clean—”</p><p>“However we do it, we should do it quickly,” Rex insisted, “We might be able to use my clearance again to lie our way safely through the blockade, but the longer we wait the more likely it is they find out I’ve gone AWOL.”</p><p>“I’ll see what I find and then we can go from there. All good plans are flexible, right?” Ahsoka said, trying to channel Anakin. Rex seemed to realize it and shot her a tight smile. If he was uncomfortable at the prospect of being left alone with Padmé and the babies, he didn’t show it.</p><p>“Yes, sir,” he said.</p><p>Padmé told her where to find Artoo and the speeder, and then Ahsoka was leaving, trying to tell herself that this was just another fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants mission. She had a lot of people counting on her.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm not too happy with this chapter, because it's just the characters learning things that we already know. But, at the same time, I couldn't <em> not </em> write them meeting up with each other. Palpatine's plot is surprisingly multifaceted, in terms of possible reveals, than I had given it credit for before. I'm not sure when/how Ahsoka finds out the Palpatine is the Sith in canon, so I decided she can learn it here. I'm not sure if it makes sense for her not to know yet, but oh well.</p><p>It's good to have part of the gang together! Next chapter, you can judge me on how well/badly I write action scenes.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Duel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anakin didn’t say anything to the clones on the gunship and they didn’t say anything to him. He wondered where exactly they were taking him. The Senate building, where he had last known Palpatine to be? The Republic detention facility where Ahsoka had been kept before her trial? Somewhere else: some kind of secret Sith lair Palpatine had been hiding from the Jedi?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it turned out to be option number three, which meant Anakin had very little idea where on Coruscant they were and no knowledge of the layout of the facility. Both would have been helpful for escaping after he had dealt with Palpatine. He might at least have been able to figure out more if he could see out of the gunship, but they had kept the sides closed. It was smart of them, but for once the competence of the clones was not working in Anakin’s favor.</p>
<p>He was marched through non-descript hallways, dark and industrial seeming. Then they took him in an elevator. Only some of the clones with him were able to fit, and Anakin considered trying to break free of them now that he had more of an advantage. In an enclosed space, the clones would be less able to effectively use their blasters. The problem was, he would still be cuffed and without the Force, and whoever had his lightsaber wasn’t here, so he wouldn’t have that either. And, he would have no idea where Sidious was, which was part of the point of him being here in the first place. So, he waited, and let himself be taken to Palpatine. Anakin had never been one for patience, but contrary to how Obi Wan might tease him, he did <em>occasionally</em> know when to apply it strategically.</p>
<p>Trying to come up with some sort of plan for how he would fight the Sith, Anakin waited out the elevator ride like a dutiful prisoner. He wasn’t foolish enough to think that Sidious would be easy to take down. For all that he outwardly appeared an old man, he had trained Count Dooku, who was a formidable opponent. If Palpatine had been able to take out the Council members, he would probably have a lightsaber. The only weapon Anakin would have was himself, unless he could disarm him and use the Sith’s lightsaber or if Sidious decided to let him out of the handcuffs.</p>
<p>Anakin resigned himself to somehow talking his way out of this one. It would be more difficult than it had been on Yerbanna where he only had to convince some stupid battle droids he wasn’t a threat. But, he thought, that was what he would have to do: an infinitely more complicated version of a false surrender. And it would be made more difficult by the fact that Anakin had already showed his hand. Talking to Palpatine in Padmé’s apartment, he had almost surrendered for real. He had needed to deny Palpatine’s offer aloud to convince <em>himself</em> that he meant it. It would be difficult to just take that back, and Anakin had never been a great actor.</p>
<p>Anakin didn’t have time to plan any more than that before the clones escorting him seemed to reach their destination. It had been a long elevator trip, which likely meant they were very high above street level, and escape via window was probably not an option.</p>
<p>The décor was much more ostentatious here, he noticed, closer to that of Palpatine’s offices in the Senate building. Instead of deep reds however, there were blacks and purples, and cold gleaming stone instead of polished metal. Pale blue fire lit torches along the walls at intervals, throwing the clones’ armor into flickering, icy shadows.</p>
<p>Yeah, this seemed pretty Sith-y.</p>
<p>Palpatine was waiting for him, cloaked so that Anakin could only see his pale mouth and chin under the hood, but he was sure it was him. The Sith sat on a stone throne, behind a kind of altar that was fashioned from a large, roughly cut slab of the same stone. He might have called it a desk, if he was making comparisons to the Chancellor’s office, except that there was nothing on it and it had clearly never been used for something so mundane as paperwork. Both the objects had some kind of runes carved into them—probably the Old Tongue. Anakin had no idea what they meant.</p>
<p>“My boy, so kind of you to finally come. I’m afraid our conversation was rather cut short,” Palpatine said in the gravelly voice that Anakin had only heard hints of earlier that night. The smooth, grandfatherly tones with which he had always spoken to Anakin were gone.</p>
<p>Anakin did not reply.</p>
<p>“Leave us,” Palpatine told the clones. He rose as they left and moved around the altar to step right in front of Anakin.</p>
<p>“I was hoping your pretty little wife would be joining us.”</p>
<p>His words could have come out of the mouth of any number of the slavers and scum Anakin had encountered in his life, taunting a <em>pretty little</em> slave girl who had no choice. Despite himself, Anakin’s jaw clenched painfully at the thought of Padmé in this place: the Sith’s terrible voice and chilling gaze directed at her. Palpatine laughed.</p>
<p>“Yes, yes, Skywalker, <em>there</em> is your anger. It is powerful. Such a shame you do not use it.”</p>
<p>“It is not the Jedi way,” Anakin replied, almost by rote, because he badly <em>did</em> want to use it.</p>
<p>“The Jedi are wrong about many things, my boy. They bow to the whims of politicians instead of acting on what is right. I have seen it many times, in my position. I have used it to my advantage. They would not let you save your mother. They would have forced you to deny your wife. Do you truly think the Jedi way will save you now?”</p>
<p>Anakin didn’t think that <em>the Jedi way</em> was the reason no Jedi were coming to save him.</p>
<p>“I’ll save myself.”</p>
<p>Palpatine smiled coldly.</p>
<p>“You are quite at my mercy, Anakin. I could kill you easily, right now, if I wanted.”</p>
<p>“And why don’t you?”</p>
<p>“We have been good friends for many years, have we not?” Palpatine said, “I wish you to be an ally.”</p>
<p>“Why would I help you?” Anakin asked, trying to sound truly interested, as if the man hadn’t threatened him and his wife. They had tread this ground before, and Anakin was exhausting his reserve of patience. He just needed to make Sidious take the cuffs off him.</p>
<p>“Anakin,” Palpatine began, as if the answer was obvious. And it was. Anakin knew what he was going to say, because this was the third time he was going to say it.</p>
<p>“Your wife will die unless you let me teach you to use the Force to save her. We have both seen it.”</p>
<p>Anakin reminded himself that Palpatine didn’t know. He didn’t know about Luke and Leia—that they had already been born and were with their mother, all alive and well. And Anakin hoped he never would.</p>
<p>He tried to make it look as if he was tempted by Palpatine’s offer to save Padmé. This afternoon, he had been <em>very</em> tempted, so it wasn’t as difficult as it might have been.</p>
<p>“How can I trust you to teach me? I can barely even see you. I can’t sense you.” Anakin said. He could have really used Obi Wan’s gift for negotiating at the moment. It was a fine line to walk between getting Palpatine to let him have access to the Force and not alerting him of his intentions for once he had it.</p>
<p>“You wish to sense me?” Palpatine said, mockingly. Anakin got a sinking feeling that Palpatine was on to him.</p>
<p>“Show me,” Anakin said, fighting to keep his voice level.</p>
<p>Instead of replying, the Chancellor waved his hand, unlocking the cuffs from his captive’s wrists. Anakin had been preparing to spring at the Chancellor as soon as his hands were free, but feeling the Force again caught him off-guard. He hadn’t expected how dark and suffocating it would feel here. Before Anakin could even move, Palpatine had reached out and grasped both sides of his head in his spindly hands.</p>
<p>Anakin stopped seeing, stopped hearing, except for the wave of darkness that invaded his mind, battering down several layers of his mental shields in an instant. Only the ones that guarded the core of his true self, those that Anakin had had in his mind before he even knew what the Force was, remained. Palpatine’s malicious presence attacked these too, trying to strip away Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight, and replace him with something else.</p>
<p>“Get out of my head!” Anakin yelled, though he barely heard the words through the storm of darkness.</p>
<p>Palpatine just laughed and poured gruesome images into his mind.</p>
<p>
  <em>Flashes of Padmé, dying a thousand different ways, invaded his thoughts. The sickening cry of a young Tusken raider under his blade. Bits of a lightsaber duel with Obi Wan, who was trying to kill him. Being lost and alone in the flat unforgiving desert of Tatooine, empty sands stretching as far as he could see. Clone troopers, shooting Ahsoka in the back. Flames, licking at his skin.</em>
</p>
<p>Anakin screamed.</p>
<p>
  <em>They’re not real, they’re not real, they can’t be real.</em>
</p>
<p>He tried to call upon the Force, to push Palpatine back, but he was surrounded by darkness. He was drowning, drowning, drowning: the worst nightmare of a desert child. The only thing he was sure was real was himself: a flickering candle buffeted by a howling, stormy night. He didn’t dare let it be snuffed out.</p>
<p>Nothing he could call upon—no external reserve of the Force—would be able to save him, now. Anakin screamed and drowned and wondered when he had started taking that kind of assistance for granted. And then he remembered:</p>
<p>
  <em>I’m a person, and my name is Anakin. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>I’ll save myself.</em>
</p>
<p>He was supposed to be the Chosen One, carrying more power within himself than any Jedi in millennia. He only had to use it. From a flickering, distant star, he became a supernova, trying to chase Palpatine’s thick, oily darkness out of his mind.</p>
<p>
  <em>The delightful, heady feeling of Padmé in his arms after returning from a long campaign. Performing a kata with Obi Wan, their movements perfectly in sync. Jumping after Padmé into the cool waters of the lake at Varykino, surfacing quickly, laughing. Ahsoka, tired after a hard-fought victory, leaning sleepily into his chest. Artoo’s excited whistles. Rex’s exasperated smile. The feeling of flying. Leia. Luke.</em>
</p>
<p>When Anakin came back to himself, he was laying on the unforgiving floor of the room, over by the doors. His mind was his own again, though his thoughts felt shaky and charred around the edges. He sat up, panicked, and his eyes immediately found Palpatine’s form slumped on top of the altar. They must have been physically thrown apart from each other by the battle of the Force in his mind. The Sith was stirring—because apparently, it was too much to hope for whatever he had done to get Palpatine out of his head to have also killed him—so Anakin forced himself to get up.</p>
<p>He reached out in the Force, which, though still shot through with deep rivers of darkness and pain, reacted to his will. He found the twisted energy of two kyber crystals, bled red with the Dark Side, pulsating in two lightsabers hidden on Palpatine’s person.</p>
<p>So Palpatine used Jar Kai. Fantastic.</p>
<p>The weapons must have been hidden up the man’s draping sleeves, concealed but ready to drop into their wielder’s palms in an instant. Anakin focused on the release mechanism in the holsters, understanding how it worked in an instant, and used the Force to trigger them, quickly pulling both weapons to him. The unfamiliar hilts whizzed from their hiding places and through the space between them.</p>
<p>Halfway between Anakin and his enemy, like ships caught in a tractor beam, the lightsabers slowed their movement and hung suspended in the air. Opposite him, Palpatine was crouched on the altar, both of his hands held out to the weapons in a mirror of Anakin’s own pose. Their powers struggled against each other in a game of cosmic tug-of-war. The air vibrated with it. Anakin felt his own grip on the lightsabers slipping; these weapons were attuned to Palpatine, and the Dark Side was strong here. If they continued like this, Palpatine would gain control of both.</p>
<p>Instead, Anakin shifted his efforts entirely onto the one on his right, catching the Sith, who was still splitting his power and focus between the two hilts, off guard. As he had hoped, it broke the stalemate. He felt the weapon thump into his palm and ignited it, while he watched its mate fly in the other direction.</p>
<p>Anakin was launching himself at the Sith as soon as he had grasped the lightsaber, leaping upwards at Palpatine, hoping to knock him off his perch atop the slab of stone and into the throne behind it. Anakin brought the red blade to bear in a vicious overhead strike as he went. Instead of slicing Sidious in two, all it did was carve a sizzling gash into the stone Anakin had landed on, as his opponent deftly rolled out of the way. Anakin barely had time to bring his own weapon to block a retaliatory strike to his left side. He pivoted and used the momentum to knock the blade away. They ended up both standing on top of the altar, facing each other. The hood had been knocked off Palpatine’s head, so that, forced to stand close to him, Anakin could clearly see the yellow in his eyes.</p>
<p>There was no way to tell how Palpatine thought this might go—no indication of confidence in his dueling skills or fear of Anakin’s own—just a disgusting sneer on the man’s face. There wasn’t room for Anakin to flip his blade over in his hand as he often did to gear up for a duel. Palpatine was so close that the motion would have given him ample time to get under Anakin’s guard.</p>
<p>Anakin’s usual next move in a duel was to attack, and so he did, first feinting high, as if going for Palpatine’s head, then drawing back the blade to thrust at his stomach. Palpatine moved to block the feint and then sidestepped out of the way of the thrust. Turning, the Sith swung at Anakin’s now unguarded back, but he was already crouching to avoid it, meaning to sweep Palpatine’s legs out from under him. Palpatine jumped over his kick, backflipping over Anakin while simultaneously reaching out his blade. Despite his awkward position, Anakin barely managed to bring his lightsaber above his head to avoid getting sliced.</p>
<p>The Sith landed deftly on the ground closer to the doors and Anakin followed him off the stone platform, going for another overhead strike. Palpatine blocked him again, but Anakin was glad for the comparatively open space they would now be fighting in. Being so close to an opponent with a completely unknown style of combat and having so little room to maneuver atop the altar had been a recipe for disaster.</p>
<p>After that, their duel continued at a breakneck pace of attack, block, and counterstrike, both opponents using their connection to the Force to speed their motions and assess the attacks of the other almost faster than conscious thought.</p>
<p>Palpatine was deceptively fast, and not like Dooku, who had moved more slowly—which Anakin had pointed out on several occasions to tease him about his age—but with a certain graceful economy of movement. No, Sidious was a vicious whirlwind. Every attack that Anakin tried, Palpatine met his blade and then followed up with two attacks of his own.</p>
<p>Anakin was getting the sense that the Sith was trying to herd him towards—or away?—from something instead of trying to kill him. Palpatine’s attacks were more intended to slice and maim, not stab or behead. Palpatine still wanted him alive, which made Anakin uneasy, even as he poured most of his attention into creating an opening to strike a killing blow. Was there some other way Palpatine intended to turn him to the dark side? Some other way in which he might be useful to the Sith, even after he had proven his unwillingness to give in?</p>
<p>Palpatine’s blade came at him, but Anakin deflected it before it could slice an arc across his chest. Anakin swung at his neck, but Palpatine knocked the attack away. Slice. Dodge. Stab. Parry. Counterstrike.</p>
<p>Anakin was holding his own, but that was all he was doing. He recognized the vague strategy Palpatine was using but had no energy or attention to spare to thwart it in a more substantial way than simply keeping the fight going. Because of this, Anakin found himself pushed towards what he thought was an alcove that had been hidden in shadow when he had first entered the room. He had no idea how big it was or what traps might lurk in it. He couldn’t exactly turn his head to look without getting stabbed.</p>
<p>Palpatine drew back his lightsaber over his shoulder with both hands, with its tip pointed at Anakin, to stab him in the chest or shoulder. Anakin saw the opening it gave him, having left the Sith’s torso on the opposite side unprotected, and Anakin’s own blade free for an attack that by all rights should have bisected Palpatine at the waist.</p>
<p>Before he could take the opening, the Force slammed into his chest instead of Palpatine’s lightsaber, and Anakin went flying backwards into the wall. On impact, the lightsaber was wrenched out of his hand. Anakin tried to respond with a Force push of his own, if not to send Palpatine flying backwards also, then to at least divert the trajectory of the ‘saber thrust he was sure was about to skewer him. Palpatine was pushed back, but he kept his feet under him and his hold on Anakin’s body. Anakin was painfully held against the wall, his arms forced down to his sides, and the Force like a great weight was centered on his chest, heavy enough to make his ribs protest under the pressure.</p>
<p>Anakin struggled to overcome the hold with his own power, as he had done before to kick Palpatine out of his mind, but he had only begun to muster the strength needed to do so before his connection to the Force was cut off abruptly. Metal clamps that seemed to emerge from the wall encircled his wrists, arms, ankles, and legs—they must have been made of a similar material as the Force-dampening handcuffs he had worn earlier. Breathing hard, Anakin tried to wrench himself from the restraints, but they didn’t budge.</p>
<p>Palpatine deactivated his own lightsaber and called the one Anakin had stolen from him back to his possession. He stepped closer to where Anakin was immobilized against the wall, amused malice glinting in his eyes. Putting his twisted face right next to Anakin’s, he said,</p>
<p>“How foolish of you to think you could kill me. Luckily, I have a use for you, or you would already be dead. I <em>own</em> you.”</p>
<p>Rage surged through Anakin at the words, but without the Force as an outlet, all he could do to express it was to struggle uselessly against his bonds and snarl.</p>
<p>“You can’t make me join you,” Anakin growled, because whatever doubts he might have still had about Palpatine’s promise to ensure Padmé’s safety or help Anakin reach his true potential were well and truly destroyed at the implication that he was Palpatine’s slave.</p>
<p>“Can’t I, Skywalker? I will find your wife and bring her here. I will kill her and your child, and I will make you watch. I will make sure your pain is so great that the Dark Side of the Force is all you know.” He stepped back, musing with a sudden air of indifference, “I had hoped you would come willingly—it would have been much easier for both of us—but even <em>you</em> cannot resist the power of the Dark Side for long, Chosen One. The work I have done to make you mine will not come to nothing,” his face stretched into a sickly smile, “I am a very patient man.”</p>
<p>Palpatine stepped back then, waving a hand, and more metal restraints emerged from behind Anakin, this time settling over his mouth so that he could not respond. As he turned and walked away, a large panel swung out from beside him, settling in front of Anakin’s body, enclosing him in a kind of vertical coffin. There was only a small transparisteel window in the door of his new prison for Anakin to see out of.</p>
<p>Right before the door sealed, Anakin heard Palpatine call out as he swept from the room:</p>
<p>“Enjoy your imprisonment, boy. I am not done with you yet.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Palpatine totally stole one of those dope af Jedi boxes from Mandalore when he was there to capture Maul. And now Anakin gets to try one!</p>
<p>Anakin is becoming quite adept at resisting Palpatine's manipulations. Because I said so.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Stolen Goods</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Come yell at me on my new Star Wars writing tumblr: <a href="https://space-asparagus.tumblr.com/"> @space-asparagus </a></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The wait for Ahsoka to call them had been a bit awkward. This wasn’t the first time Padmé had met Rex, but she was sure that most of what they knew about each other—probably somewhat personal information—was second-hand via Anakin. But if Anakin and Ahsoka had both trusted Rex to help them, she would too.</p>
<p>Being alone in a room with him might have been awkward under normal circumstances, but the fact that Luke and Leia were here made it worse. She tried to imagine what it would have been like to unexpectedly meet and be unofficially assigned to protect the tiny children, who weren’t even supposed to exist, of your commanding officer, who wasn’t even there. She was impressed Rex had taken it as in-stride as he had.</p>
<p>On top of that, the twins had started crying after Ahsoka had been gone for about an hour, and Rex had watched as their mother took too long to figure out what was wrong. They were her children, wasn’t she supposed to know what they needed? At least she had been reading every pregnancy and parenting holo-book she could get her hands on.</p>
<p>Well, maybe it hadn’t been such a good thing—aside from knowing how to change a diaper correctly and burp the babies, it wasn’t like she was exactly in a position to follow many of the recommendations. So much for feeding and sleep schedules, safety features of cribs, warming up bottles, sanitary environments, and all the rest. She also hadn’t managed to bring along any of the information with her, so she was flying blind, and that unsettled her more than it would have if she’d never read anything in the first place.</p>
<p>Padmé had figured out, by process of elimination more than anything else, that the twins were both hungry. She also figured out that Rex must have learned tact from somewhere other than her husband, because he’d politely offered to stand outside the room without her having to ask him to leave.</p>
<p>Once she had settled the twins and told Rex he could come back in the room again, Padmé leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. She was exhausted, and it would probably be a while—a very long while if the parenting holobooks were anything to go by—before she would be able to rest properly. She didn’t really sleep, deeming the situation still too precarious for that, but she did at least try to rest.</p>
<p>Padmé wasn’t sure how long it was afterwards that the silence became too deafening, worry about not hearing from Ahsoka yet crept in, and she felt the need to make conversation.</p>
<p>“Rex,” she began, letting her eyes drift open, “what happened on Mandalore? I mean, how did you and Ahsoka end up here?”</p>
<p>Rex startled at the question, and belatedly she realized that he might have been trying to rest too. Then again, both of them sleeping would have been a bad idea and she cursed herself for not thinking of what he might need when she had decided to rest. After all, she had just acknowledged that she had no idea what he had been through recently.</p>
<p>“How much do you know about what we were doing there?”</p>
<p>Padmé cursed herself again—she wasn’t supposed to know about Mandalore in the first place, probably. She must have really been tired if this was how well her attempts at conversation were going.</p>
<p>“I know that you were there to take back the government from Almec’s control, and find Darth Maul, with the help of Bo Katan Kryze.”</p>
<p>“Not that Anakin tells me classified mission details regularly, because he doesn’t,” she added hastily. This was true, although it definitely had helped their relationship that she had relatively high security clearance as a Senator; there hadn’t been much that he needed to keep from her long anyways. They had lied to each other and to their friends about plenty of other things. “But Ahsoka was there, so he—”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Rex agreed good-naturedly, “The General does have a soft spot for her.”</p>
<p>“So do I,” Padmé answered honestly, “it’s hard not to.”</p>
<p>Padmé thought about the files she had left on her personal datapad in her apartment: the ones that, with Ahsoka’s signature, would have made Padmé and Anakin Ahsoka’s legal guardians. They hadn’t gotten to ever ask her because she had completely disappeared after she left Anakin on the Temple steps. (Padmé planned to give Ahsoka a lecture about not calling, not once in all these months, to let either of them know she was okay or if she needed anything). Now they might never get to ask her, since they were all fugitives and Ahsoka was almost at the age of legal adulthood anyways.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Rex agreed again, “We took the city, and Kryze captured Almec. Commander Tano chased Maul through the tunnels beneath the city but he got away at first. When we tried to question Almec—”</p>
<p>Rex never got the chance to say more, because at that moment, his comm chimed. Ahsoka. He was able to boost the volume of the speaker in his helmet so Padmé could hear too without him having to put it on. Ahsoka launched right into telling them about their options for ships.</p>
<p>The three of them decided on a ship from the ones she had found, debating a bit between prioritizing getting a speedy ship or one whose pilot wasn’t likely to be around in the next hour or so to realize their ship was being stolen. They ended up compromising—the lack of either would make getting off-planet that much harder. The plan was to have Artoo quietly hotwire the ship and slice its identification and access codes, hopefully without drawing notice, then pose as a regular civilian vessel making a routine departure from the planet.</p>
<p>Of course, they all recognized this was probably wishful thinking. The main problem was that they had no idea what kind of security would be in place once they tried to break atmosphere. Rex and Ahsoka had observed what measures had been in place when they’d arrived, and apparently Rex’s military clearance had gotten their Y-Wing past it fairly easily, but Padmé didn’t doubt the situation would have evolved since then.</p>
<p>“They might have even suspended <em>all</em> civilian traffic leaving the planet,” Padmé worried, “depending on what Palpatine’s official story is about the attack on the Temple.”</p>
<p>“If that’s true, then we resort to hoping Rex’s codes still work,” Ahsoka said.</p>
<p>“And if they don’t?” Rex asked, looking a little bit too resigned to that happening for Padmé’s comfort.</p>
<p>“Then we hope we’ve gotten far enough by that point that I can pilot us out,” Ahsoka said. And that was probably as detailed a plan as they were going to get. Ahsoka told them where to meet her. She had left them the speeder.</p>
<p>There was virtually nothing they needed to bring with them except her hastily packed bag, which Padmé had gone through and organized to dispel her anxiety before Rex and Ahsoka had even found her, and the twins, who were going to be slightly more of a challenge. Padmé would have just held both of them, leaving Rex to drive, but that would leave them no hands free to shoot at any pursuers.</p>
<p>“Is there anything sharp in here?” she asked Rex, already scanning the shelves for something that would work. Rex just blinked at her nonplussed, but she answered her own question, finding a knife hanging on the wall that was probably there to open packaging.</p>
<p>Padmé grabbed it, sat down on the nearest thing she could find, and bent to start ripping the seam that went up the side of her skirt. Once the dress had a slit in it up to about her knees, she cut horizontally to start a tear in the fabric, careful to hold the rusty blade as far away from her skin as she could. Then she used her hands to rip the rest of the fabric, leaving her with a jagged hem to her knee-length instead of ankle-length nightgown, and a long strip of fabric. It was a good thing her skirt was loose, or it might not have been long enough.</p>
<p>“So you can run easier?” Rex finally asked.</p>
<p>“No,” Padmé replied. Well, that wasn’t what she had been thinking, but he was right.</p>
<p>“Yes,” she amended, spreading the cloth out on the flat top of a box and then setting Luke down on top of it.</p>
<p>“I’d like to have a hand free,” she explained. She shrugged off her outer cloak and lifted both Luke and the fabric to her chest, draping one end over her shoulder.</p>
<p>“Can you tie this in the back for me?”</p>
<p>Seeing that she was meaning to strap him to her chest, Rex came to stand behind her and took both ends of the strip of cloth. He started to tie them together between her shoulder blades.</p>
<p>“Tighter, Captain,” she instructed, making sure that Luke’s head was turned to the side so he could breathe.</p>
<p>“Won’t it hurt him?” he asked hesitantly. It was incredibly endearing that he was worried about it, but of course she wasn’t going to tell him that.</p>
<p>“We don’t want him slipping out, do we? Besides, he had to share a womb with his sister up until a few hours ago, he’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>That must have convinced Rex, because he pulled tighter, and when they were done Padmé was satisfied—as she could be with a makeshift harness—that Luke would be safe. Padmé pulled on her cloak and picked up Leia, who was a little awkward to hold with Luke in the way on her torso. They were both little enough that she thought she could still shift Leia to only one arm and pull her blaster pistol from her pocket with the other hand.</p>
<p>As they left the storage closet, she caught the eye of Dex, who was working in the kitchen. He lumbered over to them and said,</p>
<p>“Good Luck, Senator.”</p>
<p>“Thank you for helping us Dex. You put yourself at risk—”</p>
<p>The Besalisk just nodded, “Even <em>I</em> don’t have a good idea of what’s going on out there, but I’d never turn down a friend in need.”</p>
<p>“Thank you,” Padmé said again, sincerely, and then they turned to leave.</p>
<p>When they rendezvoused with Ahsoka outside the public hangars that housed the ship they had picked, Artoo wasn’t with her, meaning he was already working on gaining access to their ride. Nobody noticed or questioned them as they rode to the right docking bay, which made Padmé both relieved and nervous in equal measure.</p>
<p>True to Ahsoka’s prediction, whoever owned the ship wasn’t around, and R2-D2 was waiting on its lowered ramp when they found it. The light freighter had a chipped yellow paint job and some carbon-scoring, but at least it didn’t look like it was going to fall apart if Ahsoka had to do some fancy flying. It wasn’t exactly aesthetically pleasing—she much preferred the sleek lines and clean design of Naboo starships—but she wasn’t about to be picky.</p>
<p>They left the speeder by the ship, and Padmé hoped it would be at least some compensation to the unfortunate being they were stealing from. She made her way up the ramp, following Artoo to the cockpit. Luckily, it had two seats in addition to the pilot and copilot stations, so Padmé could strap herself in and still watch what was going on. Although, that would be easier said than done, since she still had a baby pressed to her chest and another one in her arms. Rex took the copilot’s seat, leaving Ahsoka to take the main controls and start the takeoff sequence.</p>
<p>She laid Leia carefully across her knees and fumbled with the seatbelt across her lap. There was a harness that would have gone over her shoulders and buckled over her chest, but she didn’t put that one on, deciding it would be safer to keep Luke strapped to her for now rather than try to hold on to both babies if the ship lurched.</p>
<p>At least the take-off was going smoothly and no one was after them yet. The tall buildings and glowing lights of Coruscant grew smaller as they ascended through lanes of traffic, making for the edge of the atmosphere. Padmé wasn’t sure what was a regular level of traffic for this sector of the city, but it seemed light to her. Soon enough, Padmé could make out the shapes of Republic star destroyers in the upper atmosphere, though just barely, since there wasn’t much light out here beyond starlight and what their own ship provided.</p>
<p>They were being hailed.</p>
<p>“Wait for them to say something about why they’re hailing us before responding. We need to decide whether we’re civilians or clones commandeering a ship,” Ahsoka advised, then pressed the button on the control panel that would patch them through.</p>
<p>“Civilian vessel, this is the Coruscant Home Defense Fleet, identify yourself,” a man’s clipped voice crackled through the speaker. Padmé didn’t think it was a clone’s voice, but she knew they didn’t all sound the same, so she couldn’t be sure. In the light of the ship’s controls, Padmé saw Ahsoka’s lips thin into a grimace but she didn’t slow the ship from its course. Padmé barely breathed, the tension in the cockpit almost palpable.</p>
<p>“If you are not military personnel you don’t have clearance to leave the planet, unidentified transport, please respond.”</p>
<p>Ahsoka nodded at Rex.</p>
<p>“This is CT-7567,” he said, convincingly authoritative to Padmé’s ears, “my squad and I received orders to commandeer this unmarked ship and proceed off-planet.”</p>
<p>Padmé tightened her grip on Leia. One very near escape in one night was plenty for her—hopefully this one wouldn’t be so close as the one in her apartment.</p>
<p>“What is your destination, Commander? We don’t have record of such a mission.”</p>
<p>Rex hesitated.</p>
<p>“Classified, sir.”</p>
<p>“On whose authority?” the man sounded incredulous.</p>
<p>“The Supreme Chancellor, sir. We’re to assist in putting down the Jedi insurgency,” Rex said with what she thought was a hint of reluctance. Sitting right behind him, Padmé couldn’t see his face.</p>
<p>Silence followed. They were almost right next to the destroyer. Padmé had been on several of the same type before and their size had awed her then—now “frightened” was a much better word.</p>
<p>“Affirmative, CT-7567, proceed.”</p>
<p>Padmé collapsed back into her seat, partly in relief and partly because Ahsoka had accelerated, clearly not wanting to press their luck a moment longer than necessary. Rex reached over and cut the transmission.</p>
<p>“I’m going to do a short jump,” Ahsoka said, “just because we can’t stay here long enough to decide where exactly to go. We have enough fuel to make it all the way to the Outer Rim if we want, I think.”</p>
<p>“That’s…lucky,” Padmé said. This whole escape had been so uneventful, it worried her.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Ahsoka agreed.</p>
<p>“Would the Chancellor have any reason to <em>let </em>us get away safely?” Rex asked. So, they were all thinking along the same lines: was this some kind of trap?</p>
<p>“Coruscant is bound to be locked down more than most other planets we could go to,” Ahsoka said, “I don’t think it would make sense to wait and try to get us somewhere else.”</p>
<p>“Maybe your excuse was even better than we’re giving it credit for, Rex,” Padmé realized. Maybe there was a little more to it than luck. “I think he definitely <em>wants</em> to capture us. And, I don’t doubt that destroying the Jedi was Palpatine’s plan, but it will have decimated the command structure of the military. Right about now, he probably has to <em>personally</em> oversee a lot more than he should.”</p>
<p>“You’re saying that we’re getting through because Palpatine is too preoccupied to try hard enough to kill us?” Ahsoka said dubiously. Padmé certainly hoped Anakin was keeping him very <em>preoccupied</em> at the moment. But that line of thought led to worries she couldn’t afford herself right now. They were flying right through the silent heart of the mass of Republic Navy vessels hanging over Coruscant—she wouldn’t be satisfied until they were in hyperspace, and maybe not even then.</p>
<p>“Partly. He’s probably giving a lot of orders right now, and he’s giving them to people who are probably paranoid about half of their peers having been collectively branded as traitors. That creates a lot of weaknesses to exploit.”</p>
<p>Now, at the beginning of his—very short, Padmé hoped—control of the galaxy, Palpatine would be at his most vulnerable. The sudden tightening of his grip meant it was easier to slip through his fingers. Until, of course, he had the time and the level of complete control necessary to ruthlessly plug the leaks.</p>
<p>Senator Padmé Amidala had fallen back onto her coping mechanism of politicking and analyzing power structures and it had led her somewhere she didn’t like. She <em>knew</em> that her personal safety was not unimportant to freeing the Republic from the Sith’s control, and she knew that the safety of her children took precedence, but doing nothing at an opportune time to actively stand up to Palpatine’s power grab still rankled.</p>
<p>Ahsoka pulled the lever that would take them away, and Padmé watched the stars blur into the bright haze of hyperspace. She felt like she had left her heart behind with them.</p>
<p>“So, we actually picked a <em>good</em> time to leave,” Ahsoka summarized, swiveling her chair to face Padmé.</p>
<p>“But a terrible one to decide not to fight back.”</p><hr/>
<p>Ahsoka thought Padmé’s words probably weren’t directed at her, but it didn’t stop them from stinging. She felt like all she did anymore was run away, shrink from the fight. First it was the Jedi, then it was making things right with Anakin and Obi Wan, then it was setting Maul lose upon a broken galaxy, now it was leaving her Master alone with a Sith Lord, all to protect herself from pain. It had all seemed like the right thing to do at the time; she had thought there was some higher purpose each time. Did that make it any less cowardice? Dereliction of duty? Abandonment of the people and ideals she loved?</p>
<p>Maybe it was her own vision that was flawed.</p>
<p>She stared at the dizzying, chaotic, cloudy swirl of hyperspace through the viewport and felt it in her bones. It was hard to imagine any path except the one that swept them inexorably forward, too fast to watch the stars go by. Decisions, sending ripples through space. They faced yet another one.</p>
<p>“Where do we go?” she asked, hoping that Padmé would choose so she didn’t have to.</p>
<p>“Not Republic space, at least nowhere with a military presence, but somewhere we have connections.”</p>
<p>It would be tough for a Republic Senator and two (former) military officers to check both boxes.</p>
<p>“Separatist space?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“I doubt Separatist space is a concept that’s going to exist for much longer,” Padmé said, “even if General Grievous is still out there. Or neutral space for that matter.”</p>
<p>Ahsoka had almost forgotten about the actual, official war they were supposed to be fighting, what with her dealings with crime syndicates and the Sith Lords in control of Republic worlds. It was so strange to think of the Separatist conflict as small, when it had once been as real and essential to her life as breathing. She did remember, acutely, that having connections with a Jedi could get you in hot water. If they did what Padmé wanted, would they just be condemning their friends to being hunted too?</p>
<p>“Why do we need connections?” she asked, “wouldn’t it be better to go somewhere nobody knows us?”</p>
<p>“I suppose you have a point, Ahsoka,” Padmé sighed, “It’s foolish really, but I just want—what I <em>want </em>is to go to Naboo, but he would expect that,” she interrupted herself, frustrated. Ahsoka waited.</p>
<p>“I just want to have someone who’s actually established wherever we are looking out for us.”</p>
<p>Ahsoka had never been attached to anywhere, hasn’t bound up her identity in any one place—not Coruscant or Shili—the way Padmé had with Naboo. Ahsoka did know what it was like to not be able to go back home: when your whole body ached for it but you knew that it could never be the same as you remembered it or wanted it to be. Padmé was the <em>senator</em> of a planet that she now couldn’t step foot on because it was too dangerous. It made sense she would be looking for someone, somewhere, she could trust.</p>
<p>“Onderon?” Ahsoka asked. She knew Lux was there, and that Padmé had been close with his mother. And, though it was a warzone, the troops there weren’t clones: they were freedom fighters. Ahsoka thought they would take them all in and do their best to keep them safe. She was already plotting hyperspace routes there. They could take the Perlemian and then double back, or cut off the Hydian Way, or the Commenor Run. Which lanes did the Republic control anymore? Did they even <em>want</em> to be using those—</p>
<p>“Okay,” Padmé agreed, “and Anakin might think to look for us there, if he can—"</p>
<p>Padmé cut herself off and no one else said anything. Ahsoka realized <em>that</em> was the real reason for wanting to hide someplace familiar. Going to a random, out-of-the-way planet would feel like giving up on Anakin and on the life Padmé had built for herself. Ahsoka knew exactly what that felt like, and she wouldn’t wish it on anyone, least of all Padmé, whom she admired so much and who had always been so kind to her.</p>
<p>“My Republic credits will be worth something there, not like some places on the Outer Rim, and we can use them to lie low for a bit while we see what their government does, maybe contact Lux Bonteri if we can,” Padmé continued as if she hadn’t just brought up the Bantha in the room—the one person who tied all their lives together with the shimmering threads of fate.</p>
<p>Rex had pulled up the Navicomputer, so Ahsoka busied herself with discussing the best route with him, falling back into their old patterns. He had used to help her with her galactic navigation homework—had used to joke that it was the one part of being a Jedi he would be good at. And then she would always respond that Rex would make a great Jedi, and wouldn’t it be fun to teach him how to use a lightsaber, she was sure Master Skywalker would teach him if they asked. And then Rex would say that he preferred blasters, thank you very much, and pay attention, Commander, how many parsecs is Gromas from Coruscant and which major hyperlanes run between them?</p>
<p>They didn’t say any of that this time.</p>
<p>Soon, they reverted to real space just long enough for Ahsoka to adjust their vector along the course she and Rex had decided. Once the viewport had dissolved into the familiar view of hyperspace again, they were all silent for a while. Ahsoka could feel the adrenaline leeching from her veins. No one was willing to be the first one to break the long quiet or even leave the cockpit. Ahsoka didn’t think the three of them had ever been alone in a room together before today—or was it tomorrow already?</p>
<p>Artoo beeped—sad but annoyed, which was a rare combination for him (the annoyance, at least, was familiar). He was reminding them that the trip would take hours, and wasn’t anyone going to do anything besides sit here? Ahsoka turned back to Padmé to find the woman asleep. She thought you probably weren’t supposed to fall asleep holding a baby, so she stood up on achy legs and crossed the cockpit.</p>
<p>Ahsoka had planned to just take Leia from Padmé’s arms and let her keep sleeping, but the moment she reached out, Padmé startled awake with a small gasp. Ahsoka flinched.</p>
<p>“Sorry! Sorry, I just thought—there’s a couple bunks down the hall,” Ahsoka offered. Padmé hummed.</p>
<p>“Yes, I suppose that’s a good idea. We’re all tired, I’m sure.”</p>
<p>Rex volunteered to stay in the cockpit and Padmé offered Leia to Ahsoka so she could undo the strap across her lap. Ahsoka started down the ship’s hallway and Padmé followed her, each with a baby in their arms, towards an uncertain morning.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This chapter was a lot of self-reflection from Padme and Ahsoka, but I really like getting into their heads. I hope you do too!</p>
<p>Full disclosure, this is the last full chapter that I had prewritten. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to overcome the writer's block to write more ahead of myself. I have half of the next chapter written, so I really hope I can get that finished to post next week. After that, who knows.</p>
<p>We're almost done with Act I of this story (out of three) which is nevertheless exciting! Thanks for coming this far with me :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Parable</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*walks in two plus weeks late with Starbucks* did y'all ask for some Obi-Wan and Yoda?</p>
<p>May the Fourth be with you!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As one ship streaked away from Coruscant, another entered its atmosphere, but this one had no trouble with planetary defense. It was carrying Alderaan’s senatorial codes. They still meant something, for at least a little while longer. Even those privileges would not have been enough, however, if the warships knew who exactly was aboard the vessel: Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan and Yoda soon parted ways with Bail Organa to visit the graveyard of their people. They made their way through the shadowed halls, whose walls bled grief and death, past the bodies of their brethren, their children, littered with blaster burns. Others had been brutally cut down by a lightsaber.</p>
<p>They fought their way past small groups of clones who remained, though enough time had passed that these were probably reinforcements to those who originally led the attack. Obi-Wan noted the deep blue paint on their armor and dreaded finding the body of one Jedi in particular. Though looking sickened him, he searched every face for a familiar scar and mess of curls.</p>
<p>He could not feel the trace of Anakin’s comforting presence buzzing in the back of his head— he told himself it could mean anything.</p>
<p>There was still fighting in the archives: they overheard it from a conversation between troopers they were hiding from. Obi-Wan longed to go help, except for the fact that it would have been a lost cause, and they had a job they’d set for themselves. He and Yoda reached the communications tower, which was still relatively undamaged despite the destruction inflicted elsewhere. Clearly, the attackers had other priorities.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan made short work of the beacon, resetting it and recording a message.</p>
<p>
  <em>We will all be challenged. Our trust. Our faith. Our friendships.</em>
</p>
<p>He spoke in the future tense because Anakin couldn’t be dead, <em>he couldn’t be</em>. Obi-Wan said in his message to trust in the Force, even as he knew he would only trust his own eyes and the feeling in his own fingers when he finally wrapped them around the pulse point on Anakin’s wrist.</p>
<p>He went through the security recordings, even though Yoda warned him he would find only pain. The small green troll spoke as if he already knew what they contained, making Obi-Wan’s dread grow. Would he have to witness his apprentice’s death?</p>
<p>Instead, he found the image of a hooded figure with a crooked nose and wielding a red lightsaber, strolling with casual glee through the halls that once felt so safe and peaceful. Obi-Wan couldn’t tear his eyes away—who was this man? He was sure they had never met before until the Sith pulled back his hood and the holo-recording got a good angle of his face, and Obi-Wan saw the unmistakable visage of Chancellor Palpatine.</p>
<p>Oh. Oh <em>no</em>.</p>
<p>His first coherent thought was of Anakin. They had sent Anakin straight into the jaws of the Sith Lord. Anakin had known something was wrong—dangerous—about it, yet he had agreed. He had agreed because <em>Obi-Wan</em> had asked him. And surely, for whatever reason Palpatine had decided to make his move now, Anakin would have been his first target.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan, rooted to the spot, watched Palpatine, who stood there amidst the Jedi he had murdered, set up a holo-call. Then he watched the image of Anakin Skywalker appear. The recorder was filming from the wrong angle for him to make out Anakin’s face, and there was no sound, but Obi-Wan knew immediately it was him from his posture and the way his hair fell on the back of his neck (he had followed his former padawan into danger more times than he could count). Obi-Wan spent the first playthrough of the recording taking in the sight of his padawan, alive, trying to assess where he might be and why he might be talking to a Sith lord. Maybe Anakin didn’t know yet?</p>
<p>What exactly had happened? <em>Why</em> had it happened?</p>
<p>Soon enough, Anakin’s grainy image, filtered through two sets of holo-recorders, vanished and Obi-Wan was left bereft of the hope it had sparked in him. This recording was from hours ago, and any manner of things could have occurred since then. Obi-Wan played the recording again and watched the Sith this time. He acted friendly at first, and then his posture and expression mutated, and he became enraged. Obi-Wan was not able to tell more than that because the image was so different from the man they all knew and had grown to distrust. Obi-Wan had never felt less happy to be right about someone’s bad intentions.</p>
<p>“Master, we must find Anakin,” Obi-Wan said, after the second viewing.</p>
<p>“Trust, we must, in young Skywalker, to fight back in his own way,” Yoda replied. “Another task, we must see to.”</p>
<p>“What could be more important—”</p>
<p>“Careful, you must be, Master Kenobi,” Yoda admonished, but did not elaborate on why. He didn’t need to. Attachment.</p>
<p>“Sealed to intruders, the Council chambers have been,” Yoda said. He must have found out while Obi-Wan was busy with the recording.</p>
<p>“There could be Jedi in there,” Obi-Wan said, trying not to sound too hopeful.</p>
<p>“Help them you must, and confront the Sith I must.”</p>
<p>“But Anakin—” Obi-Wan couldn’t help but return to the point, despite Yoda’s warnings. He had always been a worse Jedi than Anakin gave him credit for.</p>
<p>“Train Skywalker well, did you?” Yoda asked. “Take care of himself, he can. Take care of themselves, the Jedi here may not be able to.”</p>
<p>Obi-Wan nodded, haltingly, and thought that if Anakin ended up dead, he would never forgive himself.</p>
<p>He followed Master Yoda’s instructions, giving in to the inclination towards obedience he now admired Anakin for being able to resist, at least sometimes. Or, more likely, Anakin had been born without any such inclination. He made his way towards the spire.</p>
<p>Two clones, not 501<sup>st</sup>, guarded the doors to the turbolift that led up to the Council chambers. Obi-Wan made quick work of them and stepped over their smoking bodies to enter the waiting lift. He knew he wasn’t supposed to feel so betrayed, to want revenge as viscerally as he did, but he could barely stand to look at their white plastoid armor.</p>
<p>Stepping out of the elevator was odd because Obi-Wan had become so <em>used</em> to doing it and finding something much different. Not even the first meeting he had attended as a councilor had felt this wrong, this backwards. He had thought then that he might never get used to the responsibility—placed on him in error, he still felt—but seeing the closed doors in front of his face instead of the welcome of the circular chamber disproved that notion. Obi-Wan had grown accustomed to the openness, the feeling of enlightenment in the chamber that persisted no matter how dire the topics of discussion and the war had become.</p>
<p>Now, he exited the elevator into the council’s antechamber. The interior emergency blast door had closed, closing him off from the council chambers proper, to protect their contents. The doors had been designed by Jedi centuries ago to safeguard the council in a dire emergency; only a council member would have the authority to open them. The contingency measure was a component of several of the larger temple-wide automated defense procedures. Another Jedi could have activated it from the control center of the temple, wrapping whoever was inside it (council member or not) in a nigh unbreachable bubble of security.</p>
<p>The space, once beacon of leadership for the entire Jedi order, had become a prison of sorts for its members.</p>
<p>Or, it occurred to Obi-Wan as he was about deactivate the locking mechanism, it could be a trap. Might clone troopers have been locked in there, by accident or not? He stayed his hand and turned back to the elevator, calling it again. The doors opened to him quickly and Obi-Wan pried off the panel in the wall, searching for a certain sequence of wires. He rewired the panel so the turbolift would wait at the top until he undid his handiwork, which would be easy enough with a touch of the Force, were he in need of a quick getaway.</p>
<p>He exited the lift for the second time and watched it expectantly to see if he had been successful. The doors remained open and ready for him and Obi-Wan thought to thank Anakin the next time they saw each other for that useful tidbit of elevator-hacking information. He pushed the thought of Anakin away quickly, before he could feel its full sting. Then Obi-Wan completed the process of releasing the lock on the blast doors, keeping one hand on his lightsaber, ready for anything.</p>
<p>He found children—Jedi younglings—and several of them, poking their heads out from behind the stately chairs that circled the room. There was no crechemaster with them, making Obi-Wan wonder exactly how they had gotten there, but he would need to gain the younglings’ trust before he could ask. Obi-Wan did not need to do much.</p>
<p>The first of them to speak was a little boy, with blond hair and chubby cheeks. His resemblance to Anakin, at the age when Obi-Wan had first met him, was almost too much. This child looked up at Obi-Wan with such trust, such faith, just as Anakin had.</p>
<p>“Master Kenobi, there are too many of them. What are we going to do?” the boy asked.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan hated the words that came out of his mouth in response. They were a symbol of what the war had done to the Jedi Order—maybe the reason this whole massacre had happened in the first place. War, violence, the pursuit of control, was the first response, but it was necessary.</p>
<p>“How many of you have lightsabers? Can you fight?”</p>
<p>Less than half of the children held out their hands to him, revealing training lightsabers. They would have been set to a lower, non-lethal setting if the younglings had been using them to practice but could be easily dialed up in power. Whether the children could wield the weapons with any efficacy was the problem.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan looked over the group, taking in each of their uncertain faces, and hoped that he would be enough to save them. He drew himself up, like he was getting ready to address his troops before a battle.</p>
<p>“There’s a place we can go and be safe, but we’ll have to leave here first. Senator Organa is going to help us, young ones, but you’ll have to be brave.”</p>
<p>“Yes, Master Kenobi,” some responded dutifully. Others just nodded jerkily, too disoriented to adhere to temple etiquette. Obi-Wan supposed that temple etiquette was a thing of the past now.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan folded himself into the nearest chair to think.</p>
<p>He closed his eyes, envisioning this sector of the temple in his mind’s eye. Being thousands of years old and built up layer by layer of new construction, the temple had many hidden passageways. There was an entrance to such a tunnel on the other side of the great hall from the council spire. As Obi-Wan wracked his brain for a better option, he found none—crossing the open space seemed unavoidable. If there were clones waiting for them there, the younglings’ untested skills with lightsabers wouldn’t be nearly enough to protect their whole group, even with Obi-Wan to help them.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan opened his eyes to find every youngling in the room clustered around him, sitting on the floor as if they were expecting him to tell a story or teach a lesson. With the crisp warmth of the daylight that was beginning to stream through the large windows, the scene would have appeared both idyllic and perfectly ordinary for the temple. Obi-Wan wanted nothing more than for it to <em>be</em> ordinary—to pass the morning teaching these younglings like a Jedi Master should. But something like that might <em>never</em> occur again in this room, and Obi-Wan fought to keep the despair of that revelation off his face and out of his Force presence.</p>
<p><em>One last time, then</em>, Obi-Wan decided, deeming a voyage to a hidden exit from the temple too risky. Patience was a Jedi virtue, and he was just going to have to exercise it. The elevator was stuck up here, which left the windows as the only way to access the chamber. They would just have to count on Bail to get there before clones took a gunship into the temple’s airspace to do the same.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan left a message for Bail explaining what they needed—hopefully for him to read right after the senate session. Then he turned towards his audience.</p>
<p>“Young ones, I am going to ask you to be patient with me until our help arrives. Can you do that?”</p>
<p>Some of the children nodded earnestly, while others looked fearfully towards the doors or down at the floor, where clone troopers lurked many stories below.</p>
<p>“I am going to tell you a story,” Obi-Wan told them as gently as he could, “listen closely so you may know the Force and—” the customary words <em>and become a great Jedi one day </em>stuck in his throat. What kind of future could be promised to a great Jedi now? He let the sentence hang awkwardly in the air. The younglings simply continued to watch him expectantly, so he began the tale.</p>
<p>“There was once a Jedi padawan whose master was away on a long mission. He had promised that he would progress in his training during his master’s absence, so every day he went out into one of the temple gardens to meditate. On the third day, a gale began to besiege the temple while the padawan was meditating. The howling wind was so strong and vicious that it pushed the padawan’s body to the ground. The padawan asked it:</p>
<p>
  <em>‘O mighty wind, why have you come to interrupt my meditation?’</em>
</p>
<p>The wind replied:</p>
<p>
  <em>‘I seek to aid your training; it will take you ages to learn anything by meditating. However, if you but heed my advice, you will learn the secret to Force pushing anything you desire.’</em>
</p>
<p>The padawan, eager to impress his master upon his return, was intrigued by the offer. He asked the wind if such a technique could even direct the path of the lightning he saw dancing through the clouds. The mighty wind agreed and howled his secret into the padawan’s ear. Taking the wind’s advice, the pa—”</p>
<p>Obi-Wan was interrupted as a frowning girl near the front of the group asked,</p>
<p>“But, Master Kenobi, what was the wind’s secret?”</p>
<p>Obi-Wan began to smile—Anakin had asked the same question upon first hearing the story—but the expression quickly dropped off his face at the mere thought of his missing apprentice. He <em>tsked</em> gently instead and said,</p>
<p>“You must accept what the Force gives you, young one, rather than demand only what you wish to gain from it.”</p>
<p>The girl screwed up her face, trying to decipher what his reply meant, but did not ask again. Obi-Wan continued,</p>
<p>“Taking the wind’s advice, the padawan waited for the next lightning bolt to jump from the clouds and managed to pull it down to the courtyard where he was standing.</p>
<p>‘<em>How may I be of service, young Jedi?</em>’ asked the lightning, crackling brilliantly in front of the Padawan—brighter than the blade of the most powerful lightsaber he had ever seen.</p>
<p><em>‘I wish to be the most skilled duelist to ever belong to the Jedi Order,’</em> the Padawan replied.</p>
<p>The lightning whispered the secret to becoming unbeatable in lightsaber combat into the Padawan’s ear and then dissipated into the stormy air.</p>
<p>Becoming drunk with his new power and wishing to test it against a worthy opponent, the Padawan attempted to snare another bolt of lightning with whom to duel. However, in his arrogance he grew careless, and the lightning instead struck the great tree that stood in the center of the garden.”</p>
<p>Obi-Wan paused for effect, knowing that the younglings would all be thinking of the ancient Uneti tree that stood in the main temple gardens. He heard a few of them gasp at the thought of the tree, which would have been their companion in many of their early lessons with Master Yoda, catching fire.</p>
<p>At the horrifying realization that the tree might be burning at this very moment—a repository of Jedi history and culture destroyed—Obi-Wan hurried to distract himself by refocusing on the story. He hoped the younglings hadn’t had the same thought.</p>
<p>“The tree burst into flames, but the Padawan did not immediately understand the danger he had created. Instead, reveling in the immense heat of the fire against his skin he called out to it,</p>
<p>
  <em>‘O scorching fire, tell me the secret to gaining the ability to destroy any obstacle in my path.’</em>
</p>
<p><em>‘Do you truly understand, young one, that of which you speak? Those who stand too close to my heat shall inevitably burn alongside their enemies,’ </em>roared the fire in return.</p>
<p>Before the Padawan could brush aside the warning, the wind blew through the garden, causing the fire to catch onto the plants surrounding the great tree, blocking the entrance back into the temple. The Padawan then saw that the conflagration was in danger of spreading to the temple itself. Knowing that he could not trust the fire to tell him how to stop itself, he instead reached out to the Force in meditation.</p>
<p>He could feel the Force, calm and soothing, building around him in anticipation, but it did not give him a clear answer as he had hoped. Using the wind’s own secret against it, he pushed back against its blustering advances, and spent hours preventing the fire from spreading further. However, he could not on his own stop the fires that had already begun and he was unable to leave the garden.”</p>
<p>Obi-Wan again let the sentence hang for a moment to let the tension build. Some of the younglings had perhaps heard the story before and knew how it ended. This would have intimidated Obi-Wan once, but he had learned—after years ago during a lull in battle hearing Anakin relay the same tale to Ahsoka with a novel vitality Obi-Wan thought he had grown incapable of finding in any of the traditional Jedi parables—that storytelling was an art. Unique meaning could be found in each individual’s interpretation of the tale, if one was willing to impart it.</p>
<p>Judging by the enthralled stares of the younglings gathered at his feet, he didn’t seem to be doing a half-bad job of it.</p>
<p>“The Padawan began to understand that he would need to trust in the Force to provide him with a solution, and as morning broke on the fourth day, it did. A deluge of rain began to fall from the clouds that had gathered with the storm. The water—cool and soothing as the Force itself—doused the flames and saved the great tree.</p>
<p>As it fell, the rain poured over the Padawan’s head, washing away the knowledge gained from the elements he had encountered that night. The Padawan welcomed the intervention, realizing that wisdom gained in haste was not wisdom at all, and could only bring destruction in its wake.”</p>
<p>A gangly nautolan boy at the front of the group spoke up then, sounding concerned.</p>
<p>“But what about when the Padawan’s Master returned? He wouldn’t have anything new to show him.”</p>
<p>“But, you see, he <em>had</em> learned something,” Obi-Wan answered.</p>
<p>As he paused to catch the children’s attention Obi-Wan’s own voice rang in his ears, hollow echoes of the words he had recorded for the beacon.</p>
<p>“Faith. Patience. Trust in the Force.”</p>
<p>The words hung in the quiet room as the younglings digested the lesson. Obi-Wan would have liked to let the meaning seep in longer, but three sharp, metallic clanks from near the turbolift broke the silence. It didn’t take long for him to recognize what they were: grappling hooks finding purchase on something in the shaft.</p>
<p>The clones had found them and were attempting to force their way up to the council chambers.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan sprang to his feet, his hand automatically reaching for the lightsaber on his belt. The younglings recoiled at the sudden change. One of them whimpered, but he didn’t have the attention to spare to figure out who. He took a breath to tell them to hide behind the councilmember’s chairs, but another sound from outside the chamber drowned him out.</p>
<p>It was the whooshing rumble of a ship’s engines, and the sound was a relief to Obi-Wan. He would have known the hum of a larty in his sleep, but this was different. Turning to the window, he saw an Alderaanian shuttle hovering quite close to the thick transparisteel. Its ramp was lowered and two of Bail’s aides stood there, the wind whipping their capes around their legs, ready to deliver them all.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan would have liked to use his lightsaber to cut an opening in the window, but they were running out of time.</p>
<p>“Step back from the window,” he told the children, and stretched out his hand. He closed his eyes, feeling the resonance of the transparisteel in his mind and fought against it. Cracking came first, slowly, followed by a high-pitched crashing sound and the suddenly un-muffled rumble of the shuttle. He brought up his hands to shield his face, knowing the wind at this high altitude could send shards flying.</p>
<p>When Obi-Wan opened his eyes, his boots were covered in a fine layer of white sand—the remains of the window after being neutralized by the the hastily created wall of the Force he had put up between himself and the younglings.</p>
<p>After having told the story of the storm, Obi-Wan was sure there was some kind of symbolism in the destruction in this place and at this time, but he ignored it in favor of shepherding the younglings towards the hovering ship.</p>
<p>The first one to reach the gaping hole in the side of the room paused nervously on the edge—there was a gap of a few feet between the floor and the beginning of the ship’s ramp. He doubted Bail’s pilot was skilled enough to get the ship closer without risking crashing into the spire.</p>
<p>The child turned back to Obi-Wan with wide eyes.</p>
<p>“Get a running start and use the Force,” he told her, making a conscious effort to rid his expression of anything that might have resembled uncertainty. It must have worked because the girl set her shoulders and her jaw in determination.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan wasn’t expecting the familiar kind of pride that burst in his chest at her bravery. She took several steps back and then leapt, landing on the ramp without even rocking the ship, being so small and light as she was.</p>
<p>The other younglings followed her example, making the jump to the ship as clone voices and more clangs echoed from the turbolift shaft. Obi-Wan considered sending the lift plummeting down on them. The younglings might all make it onto Bail’s ship before they reached the top, but he couldn’t know for sure. And he couldn’t take the risk that the clones would make it up here in time to recognize the ship as Bail’s.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan heard the surprised shout of the men in the shaft as he flicked the Force at the correct wire and the elevator dropped. He felt equal pleasure and disgust in the way the Force spiked with their panic <strike>the panic of betrayers </strike>and hated himself for both.</p>
<p>Turning back to the broken window, he found all of the younglings watching him from the belly of the ship. Time to go.</p>
<p>As soon as his boots thumped against the ship’s deck, one of Bail’s aides was shouting at the pilot to leave. Obi-Wan turned back to the empty council spire and watched it for as long as he could until the closing ramp obscured it.</p>
<p>They were then led into the belly of the ship, stopping in a spacious, empty hold. Most of the younglings clustered around the portholes in the hull to watch the city go by.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan was just about to ask one of the crew where exactly they were going when a hiccupping sob came from the group of younglings. It didn’t take more than a glance out the viewport for him to figure out what must have caused it—the silhouette of the Jedi Temple had come into view in its smoking, wounded entirety. Their home. His home.</p>
<p>The group of children parted as Obi-Wan approached, except for the boy that had first greeted him in the council chambers. Obi-Wan couldn’t think to do anything other than rest what he hoped was a comforting hand in his short blond hair. He watched as water dripped from the child’s chin onto his small hands where they gripped the edge of the viewport.</p>
<p>“How long do we have to wait, Master?” the boy asked tearfully.</p>
<p>“Wait for what?” Obi-Wan said at barely more than a whisper, following his gaze to the smoke and flames that still poured from some sections of the Jedi Temple. He pulled the child closer.</p>
<p>Comforting him, Obi-Wan began to feel the weight of the task that Yoda had given him. In the communications hub, he had not just agreed to put aside searching for Anakin for the time being. No, he had exchanged one kind of guardianship for another. But how long would it be—if ever—before he could go after his brother?</p>
<p>Bringing Obi-Wan back to the present, the child in his arms answered him,</p>
<p>“For the rain.”</p>
<p>Obi-Wan wished he knew.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I was stuck on this chapter for the longest time until my Star Wars and Religion class (the best college course I've ever taken) gave me the idea of writing a Jedi parable/myth. Faith in the Force is a concept that we discussed a lot in my class. I came up with the idea for a myth that would fit the themes of this story and SW in general and only <em> then </em> realized how well it also fit the title. I am very proud of myself and I hope you liked it!</p>
<p>I only have a vague idea what will happen after this (and TBB might mess with even that, depending on what exactly they cover) so I need to do some serious storyboarding. I'm not sure how long that will take, but I want to keep going! Just like Obi-Wan did, I'm going to have to ask you to be patient with me.</p>
<p>Thank you all for reading!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And so it begins! Welcome to the galaxy, Luke and Leia!</p><p>I've had this WIP in my back pocket for a long time, since before I made my ao3 account at the beginning of quarantine. I've got almost eight chapters of this written so far, and have since stalled out a bit, unfortunately. I hope getting feedback from readers will inspire me to keep going, since I really want to complete this project! Also, my sister made a deal with me that I would finally post this to ao3 as a gift to her. I want to do a weekly Saturday update schedule for everything I've written so far, and hopefully I'll have written more before I catch up to myself.</p><p>See you later! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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